They say a win, no matter how lousy it is, is still a win. Same thing goes for a defeat. A loss is still a loss no matter how close the scores are.

The Far Eastern U welcomes the second eliminations round with a 50-50 start. FEU absorbed its first loss of the season courtesy of a highly defensive Adamson Soaring Falcons last Thursday. They, however, bounced back as they stop the University of the East Red Warriors in their Sunday game.

Week in Review

The Tamaraws failed to duplicate their first round performance over the Soaring Falcons as they drop their first second round assignment by a solitary point, 63-64, last Thursday at the Araneta Coliseum.

FEU struggled from the field in the final period missing their first 12 shots. Aldrech Ramos, with 12 ticks left on the clock, shot the Tams’ only basket in the fourth quarter and leveled the score at 63-62. Chris Excimiano, however, failed to complete a steal as the ball was tapped by Alex Nuyles 6 seconds left of the game. Nuyles then converted the possession into a successful fieldgoal shooting Adamson into victory in the expense of the Tamaraws.

The Green and Gold squad redeemed themselves in their Sunday game at the PhilSports Arena. They dominate this season’s Battle of the East after winning over rivals UE Red Warriors in overtime, 83-77.

The boys from Morayta were up by 9 points three minutes left in the final 10 minutes of regulation. This was, however, erased by the Warriors as they rendered the Tams scoreless for the remaining minutes of the fourth. UE’s Ken Acibar tied the game at 72-all a minute and 27 still on the clock. RR Garcia had the chance to end the game but missed his shot.

Reil Cervantes ramped up his game in the overtime period scoring 6 of the 11 markers that FEU got from the five-minute extension. The Tamaraws effectively stopped and limited the Warriors to only 5 points. Rookie Terrence Romeo finally closed the game after he split his gift shots from a Paul Zamar foul.

Bye-bye Step-ladder

FEU just kissed their chance to skip the whole Final Four ordeal and go straight to the Finals after absorbing that loss from Adamson last Thursday. According to UAAP rules, if a team wins all 14 games in the eliminations, they go automatically to the Finals. The third and fourth teams in the rankings will then face each other in a knockout match. Whoever wins will face the second seed, who has the twice-to-beat advantage.

The last time a team swept all their games in the eliminations happened 2007. Well, we know what happened that year, right? Though that loss hurt us, it’s still better to be defeated now than when we are already in the semis or finals. Besides, it’ll take for FEU to lose all their games in the second round before they get kicked out of the number one spot of the rankings. We have saved enough wins to book a F4 seat.

However, that’s still no reason to relax. There’s no place for complacency. What the Tams need to do this second round is to strengthen their hold of the topseed and make sure that they get one of the twice-to-beat advantages for the semis. The Final Four contenders are becoming more and more obvious with each game. My bets? FEU, ADMU, AdU, and DLSU.

NOW why did we lose?

To be quite honest, I was left stunned after that game with Adamson. I know they are a very strong team but I expected the Tamaraws to have a plan to counter their defensive style. They did have a plan. It did not work.

FEU was out-rebounded by AdU. We had 9 offensive boards, while the opposing team had 13. This difference all the more shows itself in the second chance points of the two teams. The Tams only had 5, while the Falcons scored 10 markers.

The stingy defense of the Falcons forced the Tamaraws to commit more turnovers. We were forced to commit 3 team turnovers as compared to Adamson’s single turnover.

Were the boys of the Green and Gold overconfident going to that particular game? I don’t think so. It’s just that we really need to improve on our defense.

Interestingly, the Tams shot a whooping 81 percent from the field in the third canto. However, in the fourth, they dropped to a miserable 8 percent. And, mind you, both teams were shooting poorly in the fourth; Adamson was just slightly better than us. What made the difference was defense. A crucial part of FEU’s defense, Pipo Noundou was out in that game due to an injury; Garcia was tightly guarded by Janus Lozada; no one else held up the defense for FEU.

We’ve been relying too much on our offense that sometimes we leave out the other crucial parts of our game. What we should do, in my opinion, is to beef up our defense, take better percentage shots and avoid rushing things.

Alright, so that’s done, just charge it to experience. We did not lose our championship bid in that loss. Let’s learn from that defeat and draw inspiration from the other 8 games we won. We still have the rest of the second round ahead of us.

BTW,

Happy birthday to JR Cawaling (August 15) and Reil Cervantes (August 16). Wishing all the best for both guys.

 

August 17th, 2010 by reichmakayan Rachell Makayan is a 2008 graduate of the FEU-IN. A former sports writer of The Advocate. The product of an Ilocana mother and a Bicolano father (but trust me she doesn't know how to speak both provinces' dialect). The only FEU alumnus in her family, she constantly finds herself fighting over her mom, dad and sister every time the Tams plays the Warriors (Of course, she wins most of the time).