By Ohmer R. Bautista and Hillary Dana D. Estacio

Reaching the last day of the University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) season 81 3x3 basketball tournament, the Far Eastern University (FEU) Tamaraws were not able to sustain their title-defense bid, sealing their fate at fifth spot with a 3-3 win-loss record last March 3 at the Ayala Malls Feliz in Marikina City.

The Morayta-based squad was caught in between a three-way tie alongside the De La Salle University (DLSU) Green Archers and Adamson University (AdU) Soaring Falcons, who also sported an identical 3-3 slate. With the compliance of the quotient system rule, however, the Tamaraw cagers were unable to compete in the latter stages of the competition after finishing with 51 points in total output — an outcome that was heavily hampered by their final game of the season, which was against National University (NU).

In the game against NU, the Bulldogs granted a win by default decision to FEU which prevented the Tamaraws from garnering a single point from the said opponent. This, in turn, pushed FEU out of the competition.

As Tams rookie L-Jay Gonzales put it, “Kasi dapat diba may game pa kami sa NU kaso nagpa-default na sila kaya sa point quotient system, kulang ‘yung sa’min kasi wala kaming nakuhang points sa NU (We were supposed to play against NU but they opted for a win by default, which is why on our point quotient system, we weren’t able to accumulate points).”

With this, the FEU Tamaraws were unable to turn their fortune around after a 1-3 card during the first day and come home triumphant in the 3x3 basketball tournament.

On a positive note, the Tamaraws fended off the Jerrick Ahanmisi-led Soaring Falcons earlier that day after putting up 12 points to upend Adamson’s 11.

Wendel Comboy played full blast for the Tamaraws, garnering eight points, resulting to a 33.3 field goal percentage, and five rebounds. Aiding him was Alec Stockton who earned three points and three rebounds. Meanwhile, Simon Camacho and Ahanmisi combined for eight points in the game.

In all, Gonzales attributed their crucial losses to height disparity, citing their game against Ateneo de Manila University (AdMU) as an example.

“Siguro kulang pa ‘yung mga ginawa namin sa loob ng court, tsaka nahirapan din talaga kami lalo na sa Ateneo at kay [Angelo] Kouame kasi napakalaki niya. Pero lumaban naman kami para makapasok sa semis at finals (Maybe our all-out effort inside the court was just not enough, and we found it difficult to compete especially against Ateneo and Angelo Kouame because of his length. But we fought real hard to enter semis and finals),” Gonzales ended.