MANILA, Philippines — It couldn’t make its threes, so Far Eastern University took the ball strong to the hoop and defeated University of the Philippines, 71-66, Saturday in the 2013 Filoil Flying V Hanes Premier Cup.
A pair of and-one plays courtesy of Rogery Pogoy and Russel Escoto finally gave them the lead, 52-48, towards the end of third before RR Garcia kept on blowing by his defenders to keep them comfortable ahead late in the game.
That was how FEU took over for its third win in the tournament (3-2), and exposed some defensive weaknesses of UP in guarding the lane.
“That’s what Coach told us – to push the ball,” said Garcia in Filipino. That’s where we have an advantage. We can’t shoot the threes that’s why we sould penetrate [the defense] always],” he said.
The Tamaraws’ new recruits Achie Iñigo and Ron Dennison, along with American Anthony Hargrove and Gryann Mendoza, conspired for a 10-2 run which put them ahead, 62-50, with seven minutes left.
It was only in the fourth quarter when FEU got the groove it wanted, trailing UP by four points at the half.
“We were trying to give all of the guys minutes. We wanted to give other guys exposure. The setback is that the timing and flow are lost,” said head coach Nash Racela.
In the first half, it was all Chris Ball – scoring 10 of his 17 points to put the Maroons slightly ahead. He also had 17 rebounds and two assists to boot.
Joseph Marata, then, took over for UP by scoring all but five of his 23 points in the second half.
The Maroons went down swinging as Marata, a transferee from La Salle, pulled the Maroons within three, 60-63, on back-to-back buckets with 3:55 left.
Garcia scored four straight points after that, but UP inched closer anew, 69-66. The Tamaraws’ senior guard, then, set the final score by taking advantage of the wide-open left lane with 26.6 seconds left.
“It’s a good thing sa [in the] end game, we were able to pull through. We wanted to make necessary stops in the end game but it didn’t happen, that’s one thing we need to learn,” said Racela.
Mike Tolomia led the Tamaraws with 15 points, while Hargrove finished with nine, Garcia and Escoto with eight each.
The scores:
FEU 72 — Tolomia 15, Hargrove 9, Garcia 8, Escoto 8, Mendoza 6, Dennison 6, Pogoy 6, Belo 4, Cruz 4, Iñigo 2, Sentcheu 2, Jose 2, Aguilon 0, Lee Yu, 0.
UP 66 — Marata 23, Ball 17, Soyud 8, Pascual 7, Gingerich 3, Reyes 2, Asilum 2, Lao 2, Gallarza 1, Desiderio 1, Wong 0, Amar 0. Ligad 0, Surez 0, Paras 0, Harris 0.
Quarters: 16-14, 32-26, 52-48, 71-66