Garcia saves Tamaraws over upset-conscious Warriors

RR Garcia, top Most Valuable Player award candidate, to the rescue. The heady Far Eastern University play maker delivered the dagger in overtime to squelch University of the East’s upset bid and tow the Tamaraws to a hard-earned 83-77 overtime triumph in the UAAP men’s basketball tournament at the Philsports Arena Sunday. Garcia’s floater with 19.7 seconds left in the extra period kept the rallying Warriors at bay and had his Tamaraws averting their first back-to-back setbacks of the season. FEU improved to 8-1 and continued their hold of solo lead in the eight-team cast. Dragged into yet another cardiac encounter, the Tamaraws survived a gritty Warriors squad, which almost completed a stunning victory. The Warriors were in fact having the last offensive crack in regulation play. Cerebral guard Paul Lee milked the clock, drove down the lane and made a perfect feed to Raffy Reyes, who missed a potential game-winning short stab, setting up an extra five-minute stretch. Garcia and Reil Cervantes took charge in overtime as their baskets carried FEU on safer ground. Garcia finished with 23 points while Cervantes contributed 19 markers on top of nine boards. Despite the win, FEU coach Glen Capacio had a mouthful in the game's officiating. "I hope someone could make ways to improve the league’s officiating because everyone watching know what's going on," Capacio said. "I pity my players because they worked so hard on the floor and then things like this happen." Cervantes, who is turning 24 on Monday, nearly played the villain’s role for the Tamaraws. He gave Lee a clothes-line tackle while attempting to stop the UE guard’s penetration. The scenario was a shaky one, it looked like a subtle version of Kevin McHale’s tackle on Kurt Rambis during Game 4 of the Boston Celtics’ 1984 best-of-seven finals against the Los Angeles Lakers. Lee landed hard and grimaced in pain while picking himself up. He was replaced by Paul Zamar to take the two free throws. "It was really a foul and I didn't mean to hurt him" said Cervantes, who later apologized to Lee after the game. "I was not doing it as a way of getting back against the unfair officiating. It just happened." After Zamar hit one-of-two shots from the free throw line moments after Cervantes' unsportsmanlike foul, lanky Kenneth Acibar scored to cut the Tamaraws’ lead to three, 80-77, with 37 seconds left. But Garcia scored the decisive basket, a floater from the right wing, that all but sealed the victory for FEU. - RCJ, GMANews.TV