The Far Eastern University (FEU) Tamaraws completed a rare first round sweep of the UAAP 73 Basketball eliminations with a 65-57 win over University of Santo Tomas (UST), Saturday at the Arena in San Juan City.
Although UST showed pretty well during the first half even leading FEU all throughout and thereby threatening to tarnish the latter’s unblemished record, The Tamaraws were still able to tied the game at the end of the third quarter with 45 apiece for both teams. The Tams only needed go-to-guy RR Garcia to break the deadlock to jumpstart a 10-0 run in the opening of the last canto (55-45) while holding UST scoreless, as the Tigers started to shoot miserably from the field. A Chris Camus triple for UST cut the FEU lead to seven (61-54) with barely 2 minutes left, but it wasn’t enough to inch closer to the determined Morayta-based cagers.
Former RP Youth, Garcia scored ten of FEU’s 20 points in the last quarter. He had 22 points in total, four rebounds, three steals, and one block.
FEU coach Glenn Capacio in a post-game interview said, “Hindi pa tapos, kaya dodoblehin pa naming ang effort, “Lahat ng teams nagpre-prepare na para sa amin sa second round kaya hindi kami pwedeng mag-relax.”
“We contained their perimeter players, in the last twelve minutes, they were barely able to score from the three-point area,” noted Capacio. “Pagdating ng second half, bumawi kami offensively and defensively,” added Garcia. Another crucial stat was FEU’s 51-38 rebounding edge over the smaller Growling Tigers, who finished the first round tied with National University at 3-4 in the standing.
- FEU became the first team since University of the East in 2007 to complete a first-round sweep.
- It was 2005, when FEU last swept the first round - eventually becoming the champion that season during the last playing year of now PBA stars Arwind Santos, Mark Isip, and RJ Rizada.
- If FEU manage to duplicate this feat in the second round, thus sweeping the entire eliminations with a 14-0 record they will earn an outright finals berth plus a thrice-to-beat advantage. The remaining three teams will play a step-ladder phase (#3 vs #4 with winner playing #2 who has twice-to-beat advantage)
Scores:
FEU 65 – Garcia 22, Ramos 12, Noundou 12, Cawaling 6, Exciminiano 4, Cervantes 3, Romeo 2, Mendoza 2, Cruz 2, Bringas 0, Sanga 0, Knuttel 0.
UST 57 – Camus 16, Bautista 12, Teng 11, Afuang 10, Mariano 4, Pe 2, Fortuna 2, Wong 0, Mamaril 0, Daquioag 0, Aytona 0.
Quarters: 10-15, 26-30, 45-45, 65-57
