FilOil: Tamaraws stomp Pirates, remain perfect at 4-0

The FEU Tamaraws bullied their way past the LPU Pirates in wire-to-wire fashion, 78-71 on Wednesday at the FilOil Flying V Arena in San Juan City. The win maintains FEU’s top standing in Group B of the FIlOil Flying V Hanes Premier Cupt with a perfect 4-0 record.

Using their superior size advantage on the perimeter, the Tamaraws overwhelmed the smaller Pirate guards and forwards for easy drives to the basket. Mike Tolomia aggressively pursued mismatches and finished with a game-high 22 points in just 22 minutes of play.

The loss is Lyceum’s first of the tournament, dropping them to 2-1, a game and a half behind the table-topping Tamaraws.

 

FEU’s length seemed to bother LPU on the offensive end as well as the Pirates were denied looks attempts at the basket, resulting in 41 attempts from beyond the arc, with Lyceum converting on just 11 of them, good for a 27 percent clip. The Pirates had even more difficulty finding points from within the arc, finishing 12-of-49 for the game.
 

The Pirates did find success on the offensive glass, finishing with 31 offensive rebounds led by Joseph Gabayani’s eight offensive boards. Gabayani used his heft and soft touch around the basket to record 11 points in another solid outing for the transferee from UST.
 

The Tamaraws were uncharacteristically careless with the basketball, recording 21 turnovers led by Tolomia's six.
 

“Lyceum is a very tough team. Actually the level of physicality of their team is something that we admire, that we emulate. It is something we lack. If we want to go far in this UAAP season, it is something we need to have,” said FEU head coach Nash Racela.
 

“They’re a great team, they’re very physical. Like coach [Nash] said, that is something we need in the UAAP because a lot of teams will be bigger than us,” said Tams forward Mark Belo.

Lyceum next plays NCAA champion San Beda on Saturday May 10 at 12:30pm.  The Tamaraws have a two-week break before their next assignment in the FilOil tournament, when they play St Clare on May 23 at 12:30pm before closing the elimination round against San Beda. - JDL, GMA News

The scores:
 

FEU 78- Tolomia 22, Belo 12, Jose 9, Pogoy 8, Escoto 6, Tamsi 5, Hargrove 4, Inigo 4, Denila 2, Lee Yu 2, Ugsang 2, Delfinado 2
 

LPU 71 - Mbida 15, Maconocido 15, Zamora 12, Gabayani 11, Baltazar 6, Bulawan 5, Ko 4, Azores 3

Quarter scoring: 24-16, 43-31, 61-52, 78-71