Ace guard dreams big for Tamaraws

MANILA, Philippines - Terrence Romeo hopes to help Far  Eastern win the UAAP crown and nail the Most Valuable Player (MVP ) plum as gravy to the ultimate prize. He could end up achieving both.

Romeo leads the field in the MVP statistical race with 79 statistical points at the close of the first round elims with reigning back-to-back MVP Bobby Ray Parks Jr. of National U and Sierra Leone’s Charles Mammie of University of the East in hot pursuit with 76 and 74, respectively.

Romeo led the league in scoring and steals with norms of 22.6 and 1.4 while running third in assists with 4.1 behind NU’s Joshua Alolino (4.9) and Parks (4.4). He also averaged 6.29 rebounds, based on numbers released by the league’s Smart Bro-powered statisticians.

With Romeo dishing out big games, the Tams are enjoying their finest start in three years, sweeping the first round elims to post a three-game lead over three other teams.

Still, the energetic 21-year-old FEU guard downplayed his individual performance, saying he’d rather see the team win the championship first and foremost.

“My real goal is to help my team win the championship,” said Romeo, who once shot a whopping 83 points during a UAAP high school game for the FEU Ferns, in Filipino.

Romeo’s recent effort, a game-high 26-point explosion in a 74-71 decision over Adamson U last Sunday at the Smart-Araneta Coliseum, also nailed him the ACCEL/3XVI UAAP Press Corps Player of the Week award.

FEU coach Nash Racela has nothing to say about Romeo, who won the Gatorade-backed plum for the third time in the first four weeks from sportswriters covering the league, but praises.

“That’s when you need his (Romeo) one-on-one ability, those moments. That’s where I let him be,” said Racela.

Parks, out to win an unprecedented third straight MVP crown, remains in the hunt with norms of 18.9 points (league’s third best), 9.4 boards (seventh), 4.4 assists (second), 1.3 steals (second) and a just around a block a game.

Like Romeo, Parks said he wants winning a championship for the Bulldogs than anything else.

“All I want is to win a championship for NU. I’m more about running the team right now,” he said.

Although third in the MVP race, the 6-8 Mammie, who averaged 17.83 rebounds in the first round, will no longer be eligible for the award after incurring a one-game suspension a few weeks ago.

Rounding up the top 10 are NU’s Emmanuela Mbe (67.2857), UE’s Roi Sumang (66.1429), Santo Tomas’ Karim Abdul (62.7143), FEU’s RR Garcia (58.8571), Ateneo’s Ryan Buenafe (56.5714), Adamson’s Jericho Cruz (56.000) and La Salle’s Jeron Teng (55.7143).