Tamaraws book last Final 4 berth

Inside the Far Eastern U locker room, Tamaraws coach Olsen Racela drew a circle on the board with a dot in the middle. One of his players, Richard Escoto, explained that the dot signified the Tamaraws’ goals while the circle was the symbol the distractions surrounding the team.

“We just had to focus on that dot,” said Escoto in Filipino. “We had to leave out all the distraction and do what we were supposed to do.”

Racela’s message resonated well enough as the Tamaraws overwhelmed the Adamson Falcons, 71-54, Saturday to clinch the last Final Four berth in UAAP Season 80 at Smart Araneta Coliseum.

With University of the Philippines drubbing National U, 106-81, for its sixth win, the onus was on the Tamaraws to avoid a playoff with a victory over the Falcons, who were already assured of the third seed in the Final Four.

“I just told them to narrow our focus,” said Racela, in his first season as Tamaraws coach. “I told them not to think about the game that was happening earlier, not to even think about the Final Four. We just have to think about what we were going to do to win.”

Buoyed by Paul Desiderio’s 30 points and a career-best 22 points from rookie sensation Juan Gomez de Liano, the Fighting Maroons came up with their finest performance of the season in clobbering the Bulldogs, who wound up sixth this season with a 5-9 record.

But the euphoria of the win lasted only a couple of hours as the Tamaraws got the job done by stifling the Falcons in the second half and executing efficiently down the stretch.

“What’s important right now is we gave ourselves a chance for the playoffs; I’m really proud of how they played this game,” said Perasol. “This is going to be a defining moment for our program, for them, how they are going to respond to an almost, almost do-or-die game. They responded really well.”

Arvin Tolentino, Prince Orizu and Escoto outscored the entire Adamson squad in the second half, 24-22, as the Tamaraws finished the elimination round with a 7-7 record, a full game ahead of the Fighting Maroons.

“I have to hand it to the players,” said Racela. “They never gave up, they never wavered in their desire to make the Final Four.”

—AUGUST DELA CRUZ Paul Desiderio came through with another noteworthy performance for UP against National U, but it turned out to be his final outing in a Maroons jersey after FEU shut the Final Four door on the Dilimanbased squad later in the day.