Behind Arvin Tolentino’s career outing, the Far Eastern University Tamaraws were able to build a good enough lead to buck the National University Bulldogs in a wire-to-wire win, 90-83, Wednesday afternoon at the SMART-Araneta Coliseum in Quezon City.
“And I think compared to our past games, we played more consistently in this game. Hindi kami… We didn’t start slow, and na-sustain namin yun for 40 minutes,” said first-year FEU head coach Olsen Racela.
The win lifts the Tamaraws to solo fourth with a 3-2 slate while breaking their tie with the Bulldogs, who now fall to 2-3. Moreover, this is FEU’s second win in a span of just four days, as they defeated the University of Santo Tomas Growling Tigers last Saturday.
“Well, it was a hard-fought win. Ine-expect namin kasi yung schedule namin this week, we’ll be playing three games in one week. And mabibigat yung mga kalaban namin, so UST, and then NU, and then UP on Sunday,” furthered Racela. “So we needed this win badly.”
Tolentino, the UAAP Season 77 Rookie of the Year, tallied his career-high of 23 points. The 6-foot-5 stretch forward also grabbed six rebounds.
The transferee from Ateneo was pivotal in the Tamaraws’ third quarter surge, scoring eight points during that span including a triple that gave FEU a game-high 15 point lead, 70-55, with 3:42 left.
Axel Inigo added 10 of his 12 points during that span.
Behind NU skipper Jjay Alejandro, the Bulldogs tried to mount a comeback.
Jasper Parker scored six straight points to give FEU an 84-72 lead with 4:47 remaining, but Alejandro sparked a 7-0 NU run to put them back into the thick of things. A basket by Nico Abatayo cut the lead to just five with 2:01 left, but turnovers by Issa Gaye and a Tolentino basket coming off a strong drive sealed off the Bulldogs.
Barkley Ebona added 10 points and seven rebounds off the bench for FEU.
Alejandro finished with 23 markers to pace NU, while Matthew Aquino added 13 points. Gaye was limited to just eight points on a horrid 3-for-11 shooting.
FEU look to make it three in a row when they face the University of the Philippines Fighting Maroons on Sunday, October 1, at 2:00pm. NU, on the other hand, will have a tough sixth assignment, going up against the Ateneo de Manila University Blue Eagles on Saturday, September 30 at 4:00pm.
The Scores:
FEU 90 – Tolentino 23, Inigo 12, Ebona 10, Comboy 9, Parker 9, Tuffin 7, Dennison 6, Orizu 6, Cani 5, Escoto 3, Ramirez 0.
NU 83 – Alejandro 23, Aquino 13, Gaye 8, Yu 7, Morido 7, Salem 6, Mosqueda 6, Bartlett 4, Lastimosa 3, Joson 2, Abatayo 2, Rangel 2, Tibayan 0, Diputado 0, Flores 0, Cauilan 0.
Quarterscores: 22-15, 48-41, 76-68, 90-83.
