UST advances, FEU falters in a season true to form

UST advances, FEU falters in a season true to form

by rick olivares

The University of Santo Tomas Growling Tigers eliminated the Far Eastern University Tamaraws, 81-71, from the march to the UAAP Season 82 Men’s Basketball championship.

The game for all intents and purposes mirrored exactly the two teams’ seasons. UST won by the long ball while FEU started off the wrong foot, rallied, then fell short.

The Tamaraws looked the same during the summer. There is talent on that team no doubt. But some played well while others didn’t. I thought the fact that they didn’t have their team complete for the summer onwards didn’t help as there were injuries. Others like Hubert Cani never got into the groove of the season. Barkley Eboña wasn’t consistent and Tuffin only found his range in the second round. Rey Bienes and Alec Stockton were huge in the preseason and struggled come the UAAP. 

As I have postulated time and again, you need the veterans to pull through because it is too much to ask the newbies to carry you and as good as Royce Alforque and Xyrus Torres were, at the end, their game had gone south.

That third quarter rally by FEU when they put up 28 points on the board was incandescent. What a fightback from 26 points down. But their rally fizzled out when they misfired on their remaining possessions of the quarter while UST hit two big triples. That blunted their momentum and they reverted to struggling come the fourth.

I like Patrick Tchuente and think that he will only get better. He has surprised me with some of his moves that I previously didn’t see. Assuming he returns, in my opinion, he will be better. However, those missed closed stabs and missed defensive boards also hurt the team. Had he made one or two of them, it could have been a different ballgame.

They stopped UST’s Soulemane Chabi Yo, the league Most Valuable Player by holding him to six second half points after he scored 19 in the first half. At the end of it all, that 26-point balloon was too huge a balloon to overcome. FEU owned the second half although UST made the timely stops and shots.

Some might disagree with me here, but I must point out that as difficult as this year was for Feu, their head coach Olsen Racela did a great job. Imagine losing the quality of players they had, but they still made the Final Four. Had they gotten into a rhythm early on, they might have done much differently. And this second round, they were a tough nut to crack.

Tough nuts can only take so much bombardment from the outside.

It was UST’s three-point shooting – I must stress timely marksmanship -- and the superb play by Renzo Subido that also allowed the Growling Tigers to win this.

You also have to give a lot of credit to UST head coach Aldin Ayo. Watching him on the sidelines, even amidst that furious rally by FEU, he remained calm. I think what the coach radiates will feed off on the players. If the coach is the panicked sort, his players will be on the edge. I thought that UST was calm and composed. 

Yes, nerves were touched and the game got chippy somewhere along the way. But that is the nature of a do-or-die game. It will not even be remembered for that. It is a mere footnote. At the end of it all, one can point to UST’s shooting and FEU’s late rally as the defining moments of the game.

It was also tough to see FEU players like Kimlee Bayquin and Hubert Cani tearing up by match’s end. The season never went the way it should have for them as individuals. Bayquin and also graduating player Wendell Comboy may have a title to be remembered by, but it is tough for Cani who had such a bright future but had so many missteps along the way after coming out of high school. 

On the other hand, UST veteran Zach Huang and Renzo Subido get to play another day. And that is all they and their supporters ever asked for.