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| Photo courtesy of abscbn.com |
It
took the FEU Tamaraws ten years but they are finally the kings of UAAP men’s
basketball once again.
Despite
being one of the favorites this year, the FEU Tamaraws’ seemed to have spent
the season flying under the radar, as the ADMU Blue Eagles, the DLSU Green
Archers or the NU Bulldogs hogged the limelight.
Their
ascension to the top was so nondescript that none of their players made it to
the Mythical Five, with ADMU, NU, DLSU represented by one payer and losing
finalist UST represented by two.
And
yet, after three hard-fought games, they are the ones wearing the UAAP’s
basketball crown. Here are three factors that helped make it happen.
GOOD
COACHING
Coach
Nash Racela put together a simple but masterful game plan to stop the UST
Tigers. And it came down to one thing: control the game tempo.
The
Tams sped it up on offense, which let them turn predatory, running at basically
every opportunity. They also bullied their way into the paint where, in theory,
the Tigers had the advantage and challenged the UST big men to constantly
defend the paint. On the other end, they
forced UST into playing longer possessions, which threw the timing off the
Tiger offensive machine.
DISCIPLINED
DEFENSE
The
Tamaraws had a clear defensive strategy that they successfully stuck to: Pack
the paint and force the Tigers against it. While Tamaraw defenders shadowed Kevin
Ferrer at the threepoint line, they sagged off Ed Daquioag, thereby forcing
both into a packed paint where the Tamaraws formed a defensive phalanx of
sorts.
The
Tam played defense at such a high level that they were able to force the Tigers
into hurried possessions, into almost-out-of-time possessions and into broken
possessions for most of the game. In fact, the game winning play was when they
forced Ed Daquioag into a jumpball situation, then forced Abdul Karim into a
turnover with barely a minute left. The Tigers had to foul in the next
possession and the Tams went ahead by five with about 30 seconds left, after
making their freethrows.
CHAMPIONSHIP
COMPOSURE
The
Tams led by about 10 with about 3 minutes left in the third quarter. The Tigers
then went on a tear to go up by 6 at the hallway mark of the fourth. The Tams
could have folded then. They could have buckled under the weight of the FEU
crowd’s expectations, the Tigers’ fiery run, or the memory of last year’s
collapse against NU.
Instead,
they transformed into champions, clawing their way back into the lead with
tenacious defense and bold offense. UST
on the other hand, suffered a mini-meltdown, with Daquioag, Abdul, and Ferrer
all failing to rise to the occasion.
THE
ENDGAME
It
was a game for the ages, easily one of the exciting UAAP Finals games in
history. And while FEU emerged victorious, in the end, it was the UAAP basketball-loving
fans that won.
Follow me at
Twitter: @SportadoPH
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