DESPITE THE WIN, RACELA TROUBLED WITH TAMARAWS’ PERFORMANCE AGAINST UST
By Maxine Louise Lagman
12 October 2016
“TODAY wasn’t really nice,” was the words that escaped from Far Eastern University (FEU) Coach Nash Racela on the post-game interview, despite overthrowing the University of Santo Tomas (UST) the second time in the season, 59-48 on Wednesday at the Mall of Asia Arena.
The defending champions kept their winning streak in the season, however, Racela was undeniably disappointed with the turnout of the game against the Tigers.
“The whole game, I kept on reminding them to play hard and play correctly,” added Racela. He also pointed out that along with the other coaches, they noticed that the players used the game to gain their own confidence, which was selfish and a concern for the whole team.
UST only made eight points in the first ten minutes of the game, but made a run in the second period and leveled with FEU 15-15.
On the half time break, Racela questioned the Tamaraws whether their objective for the match was to have a lead or to perform their best.
Despite coming back in the second half of the game with a better defensive performance that placed UST to their lowest output, FEU still did not displayed well for Racela, only complacency.
“I think that at this stage of the tournament, we should be concerned about our improvements as a team. We always remind the players ‘yung mga ganitong games for us to work on a lot of things na kailangan naming ayusin,” Racela said.
Jojo Trinidad was the lone double-digit pointer for FEU, 16 points and three rebounds, while Raymar Jose had nine points and 14 rebounds.
Tiger Louie Vigil had 18 points and six rebounds and Marvin Lee added 12 points. Jeepy Faundo stepped up his game with 10 points and 17 rebounds, but was not enough to drive UST to a win.
FEU stands second best in the leagues, 7-2, while UST fell deeper with their fifth straight defeat in the tournament, 2-7.
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