MANILA, Philippines — The Far Eastern University (FEU) Tamaraws may have failed to defend their UAAP men's basketball crown, but they still walked out of Araneta Coliseum with their heads held high, knowing they gave everything they could in their final game of the year.
Ron Dennison's bucket could've altered FEU's destiny, but it came a second too late, as the Ateneo Blue Eagles came away with a hard-earned 69-68 overtime win on Wednesday.
It was a heartbreaking defeat for the Tamaraws, who last year were on the winning end of a buzzer beater against Ateneo courtesy of Mac Belo.
"Well-fought game," FEU coach Racela said. "And that's something that we told our players after."
"You have to be proud of yourselves, you have to stand tall, because I know you did your best and you really made it tough for the other team. Ganoon talaga eh — one team wins, one team loses.
"We were a second short or maybe a rebound short. But it doesn't take anything away from all of us."
Racela asked his players if they thought they did their best and the answer was a resounding "yes."
FEU, which beat Ateneo last Saturday to force the do-or-die game, was in control in the first half of Wednesday's contest.
The Blue Eagles put some distance between them and the Tamaraws in the fourth, but FEU refused to go away quietly, leaning on clutch shots from Dennison and Monbert Arong to force overtime.
But literally time ran out on the Tamaraws' title defense.
"I was proud of how we played today and how we performed the whole season," Racela said.
Raymar Jose, whose superb 20-point, 20-rebound game last Saturday fueled FEU's win, ended his UAAP career knowing he left everything on the floor.
"Binigay naming ang best namin. Kinapos lang siguro," he said.
(We gave our best, but we fell short.)
"Masaya ako, kasi yung effort ko at alam ko 'yung team namin, lumaban talaga eh. Siguro, nakapos lang kami sa offensive rebound, pero sa dalawang team ngayon, pwede naman kami sa Finals."
"Siguro, para sa kanila talaga," he added.
Dennison pointed out that few expected the Tamaraws to even make the Final Four after losing six players from last year's title-winning team.
"Lahat ng tao, 'di ine-expect na aabot kami ng Final Four. Proud ako sa team namin, kasi na-achive din 'yung gusto namin," said the graduating guard.
"'Di man nakuha 'yung gusto naming na makabalik sa finals, at least andoon kami sa point na 'yun, na muntikan na naming makuha."
(Nobody expected us to reach the Final Four. I'm proud of our team because we achieved what we set out to do. We weren't able to return to the finals but at least it came to the point that we were close enough.)
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