After trailing for most of the first half, the Far Eastern University Tamaraws would rely on a monster fourth quarter rally to overpower the Adamson University Soaring Falcons, 90-73, Wednesday afternoon at the Araneta Coliseum.
The cellar-dwelling Falcons opened the game looking poised to pull-off a shocker, marching to an 8-0 lead to in the first three minutes, with Ryan Monteclaro and Jansen Rios coming out with all guns blazing. However, the sweet-shooting backcourt duo of Mike Tolomia and Achie Inigo would fire up the Tamaraws in the remainder of the quarter, draining two three-pointers apiece. Adamson would only lead by a mere point, 19-18, at the end of the first quarter.
Both teams would continue to trade baskets in the second quarter, with Mark Belo finally pulling together after only managing to get two points in the first quarter. The FEU bigman would score eight more points for the Tamaraws. Adamson would find themselves with a seven-point lead with less than two seconds remaining on the clock, 44-37, but Mike Tolomia would sink the desperation three from the other end of the court after the inbound pass, bringing the score to 44-40 entering the second half.
The exchange of baskets would continue well into the third quarter, but with the Falcons’ scorers beginning to lose steam, the cagers from Morayta would begin to mount their comeback. A putback basket from Tolomia would put the Tamaraws up 62-60 in the final seconds of the quarter.
The Falcons would continue to go cold in the fourth quarter, while FEU’s sweet-shooting trio of Belo, Tolomia, and Inigo continued to bombard Adamson’s collapsing defense. Back-to-back three pointers to usher in the final minute from R.R Pogoy would put the Tamaraws up, 84-73. The Tamaraws would sink a couple more shots in the final minutes to put the icing on the cake for FEU.
“Nag-gamble ako nung first quarter. Make or break, kasalanan ko ‘yun. Nakapag-adjust naman kami. Dapat hindi lang ganun sa fourth quarter. Dapat sa start pa lang,” said interim coach Eric Gonzales of FEU.
Achie Inigo led FEU with 18 points, 3 rebounds, and 3 assists. Mike Tolomia had 17 points and 6 rebounds, while Mark Belo had 17 markers and 12 boards. Don Trollano led the scoring for the Falcons with 20 points, 6 rebounds, and 2 assists, with Jansen Rion chipped in 16 points and 5 rebounds.
AdU- 19, 25, 16, 13, 73
FEU- 18, 22, 22, 28, 90
