Tams pummel Tigers, gain share of lead

MANILA, Philippines – Far Eastern U Tams hammered a fang-less Santo Tomas Tigers, 66-55, to forge a three-way tie for the lead with Ateneo and La Salle in the UAAP Season 77 men’s basketball pace Sunday at the MOA Arena.

Out to avenge their 67-69 first-round defeat and maintain a good position in the standings, the Tams came out charging at the Kevin Ferrer-less Tigers and stormed to a 42-19 tear to set the tone for their fourth consecutive victory and 7-2 overall.

With the win, they tied idle Ateneo and defending champion La Salle, which hacked out an 86-65 rout over University of the Philippines in the first game, at the No. 1 spot.

“It was our defense (that did the trick) and again the focus of the players was there,” said FEU coach Nash Racela, whose wards choked UST to a 30.65 percent shooting all game.

The Tams evened things up with their match-up with UST this season, 1-1, and sent the Tigers down to joint fifth with University of the East at 4-5.

“We told the players after the game that if there’s good thing we got from this win, it was, number one: getting back at UST, which defeated us in the first round; and number two: getting into a good position for a Final Four slot. Although it’s not yet a guarantee right now, if we’re three games ahead, it would be doubly-hard for UST and UE to really catch up," he added.

Roger Pogoy rifled in a career-high 19 points while Mac Belo added 12 and Raymar Jose and Achie Inigo chipped in eight apiece to offset the four-point production of Mike Tolomia, who was “under the weather” and played just 16 minutes.

The Tams led by as many as 25 points, at 58-33 late in the third, allowing Racela the luxury of giving the shock troopers some exposure.

“There was a conscious effort to rest guys like Tolomia and Belo. We wanted to also minimize the minutes of Pogoy kaya lang kinailangan naming siya ibalik sa dulo. In the same way, it will also help the other players get exposure and prepare them for the final push,” said Racela.

Karim Abdul banged in a season-high 24 points and 16 rebounds to lead a UST side that missed Ferrer due to a fourth metacarpal fracture. Ferrer is out for two weeks at least. Hastening the fall of the Tigers was the zero production from Aljon Mariano, who flubbed his five attempts in 15 minutes of play.

“Malaking bagay din na wala si Ferrer, especially siya yung tumalo sa amin nung first round with his two 3-pointers. Malaking bagay na wala siya, more dun sa confidence na ibibigay sa amin, yung confidence na mababawas on their (UST’s) part kasi mahirap pag mawawalan ka ng player,” said Racela.

“But again, we always emphasize on not focusing on mga players na meron yung ibang team. Importante is how we focus on ourselves, the team and how we can play well,” he added.