Tams repel Tigers, book last semis seat

Games Monday (The Arena, San Juan)

2 p.m. – SWU vs La Salle

4 p.m. – FEU vs San Beda

MANILA, Philippines - Far Eastern U averted a major collapse by coming through in the clutch and escaping with a 71-68 victory over last year’s champion Santo Tomas to catch the last semifinals bus in the 12th Philippine Collegiate Champions League at the Ynares Sports Center in Pasig City yesterday.

Mark Belo led FEU with 19 points, including four during a key 6-1 run with less than two minutes to go to turn a two-point deficit to a victory that sent the Tams straight to the round-robin format semis with UAAP champion La Salle, NCAA titlist San Beda and Visayan leg winner Southwestern U.

But the Morayta-based school, which routed National U, 88-70, the day before, nearly blew it.

Up by as much as 21 points in the first three quarters and 57-38 at the end of it, FEU went cold as UST, which made it this far by trampling Letran, 77-60, Monday, clawed and battled its way back with a 29-8 blitz to even seize a 67-65 advantage and momentum going into the final two minutes.

Belo, a native of Midsayap, North Cotabato, though made two free throws that knotted the count at 67-all after UST’s Kevin Ferrer was assessed an unsportsmanlike foul, fed Carl Cruz for an easy lay up and then sank two more foul shots after collaring the long rebound off a pair of charity misses by Gryann Mendoza that sealed it.

Cameroonian Karim Abdul and Kevin Ferrer paced the Tigers with 20 and 15 points, respectively, but couldn’t come through when their team needed it most as the former missed a crucial foul shot and the latter muffing a triple at the buzzer that would have forced overtime had it gone in.

FEU coach Nash Racela was quick to point at UST Pido Jarencio’s decision to pressure his inexperience guards as the cause of their near meltdown.

“UST did the right thing in pressuring us, having lost our point guards and leaders Terrence and RR,” said Racela referring to Terrence Romeo and RR Garcia, who are now playing in the PBA.

“We will need to improve on our ballhandling as a team to be able to compete with the top schools,” he added.

Interestingly though, it will be the last game by Racela, assistant Josh Reyes and Belo as they will join the national team seeking no less than the gold medal in the Southeast Asian Games in Myanmar.

“Eric Gonzales will coach FEU in our absence because we’ll be leaving for the SEA Games,” said Racela.

The scores:

FEU 71- Belo 19, Tolomia 9, Cruz 9, Inigo 8, Hargrove 8, Pogoy 6, Mendoza 4, Aguilon 3, Dennison 2, Sentcheu 2, Luz 0

UST 68 - Abdul 20, Ferrer 15, Pe 9, Bautista 9, Daquioag 7, Lo 4, Sheriff 2, Faundo 2

Quarterscores: 15-3; 35-24; 57-38; 71-68