By Aimerose C. Atienza

The low shooting percentage made the Far Eastern University (FEU) Tamaraws suffer a loss against the De La Salle University (DLSU) Green Archers, 49-65, in the 2022 Filoil EcoOil Preseason Cup opener held at the Filoil EcoOil Centre in San Juan City earlier today, July 23. 

The green-and-gold squad only managed to produce a 30.9% field goal percentage with five out of 22 shots from beyond the arc. 

In an interview with FEU Advocate, Tamaraws Head Coach Olsen Racela also highlighted that the turnovers and the lack of rebounds were some of the factors in the loss against the Taft-based squad.

“Obviously, we still need to work on a lot of things… [what went wrong in this game are] the turnovers, the rebounds, their bigs dominated our bigs. We really had a lot of turnovers, so those are things we have to work on,” Coach Racela said.

During the third quarter, the Morayta dribblers managed to snatch the lead against the Archers after trailing by seven points at the end of the half, 34-33.

However, La Salle kept composure and delivered a strong finish to clinch the opening game victory over the Tamaraws, 49-65. 

Bryan Sajonia and Ljay Gonzales both chipped in 10 points, while new addition Menard Songcuya generated six points with 42.9% shooting from the field.

With six remaining games in the eliminations, Gonzales shared that they aim to improve as individuals and take it one step at a time towards the finals of the preseason league.

“‘Yung goal namin, mag-improve as an individual, so kailangan namin magtulungan para makuha namin ‘yung Final Four hanggang sa Finals (Our goal is to improve as an individual, so we need to work together to get into the Final Four until the Finals),” the veteran guard said.

FEU Tamaraws will try to claim their first win of the season against the Lyceum of the Philippines (LPU) Pirates on Monday, July 25 at the same venue.

(Photo by Apollo F. Arellano/FEU Advocate)