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The FEU Tamaraws proved that they are a true contender today when they outplayed the De La Salle Green Archers 85 - 73. The two teams are now tied for 2nd place with 3 games to go.

Leading all through the 1st three quarters, FEU played solid offense and defense and kept the Archers from making a run. In the 4th quarter, La Salle made a run and even took the lead but with game clock down to 1 second, Cervantes hit a 3 that was the beginning of the end for La Salle.

FEU then took a 6 point lead with about 3 minutes to go. Then La Salle really crumbled. Two quick turnovers jacked the lead up to 10 and that sealed the game for the Tamaraws.

The biggest plays came from one of the smallest players on the court. Mark Barroca was just unstoppable. He was the difference, the spark and the man of the hour.

I strongly believe that Barroca is the best point guard in the league today. When he and Hens Knuttel are on the court together, they become the league’s best guard combination. Knuttel is a very smart player who directs the offense extremely well. On defense, Barroca and Knuttel can go up against any guard combination in the league.

FEU is for real. They are peaking at the right time and they will be extremely dangerous in any place they get in the Final Four. If there is one team that can stand toe to toe with any team (including Ateneo), it is FEU.
Their big man combination of Cervantes and Ramos are an explosive pair. Add Adolfo, Fernandez , Cawaling and Sanga and what you get is a well rounded team that can shoot, defend, rebound and most importantly win the close games.

La Salle looked extremely out of sync today. Maierhofer just could not get his game going. Malabes, though defensively effective, was offensively blank. As I have said time and again, Malabes is a feast or famine player. He either makes his shots or horribly misses his shots. He looks lost on the offensive end.

Simon Atkins had his first game back after the injury he had in their DLSU’s 1st round game against UE.
Except for Casio, no La Salle player stepped up today. Their foul shooting was again horrendous. They turned the ball over too many times and FEU converted many of these. It didn’t help either that they missed so many easy shots.

The only bright spot I could see for La Salle today was the play of LA Revilla. This kid will be a star in this league. He has the court savvy and all the skills needed to be an effective point guard.
Now let’s go to the officiating. The good news is that 2 referees called the game down the middle. The bad news is that the other referee was absolutely surreal in his calls.

Let me just make the clarification that FEU was the superior team today and I am not blaming the officiating for the La Salle loss. However, it seems outright unbelievable that this referee did not seem to have made a call against FEU until there was less than a minute left in the game. A number of times, even though he was the referee furthest away from the play, he would make the call that the referees near the play did not.

It is actions such as this that put a black eye on the league. With the Commissioner Almighty and his assistants sitting courtside, did they not notice this? As usual the referees kept going to the Commissioner Almighty and his minions during the course of the game.

NABRO has been heavily criticized by players, managers, coaches and fans. I am sure that there are good referees in the association, but the few incompetent ones destroy the credibility of the entire association. If the fans can see it, shouldn’t the Commissioner see it too?

The officiating has been absolutely unbelievable. For example, in Ateneo’s win over FEU, the Blue Eagles had 22 first half free throws to FEU’s 0. In their game against UE, exactly the same thing happened, 22 first half free throws for Ateneo and UE had 0. It’s possible, but highly improbable for this to happen in 2 games.

I am in no way insinuating that Ateneo had anything to do with these improbable events. What I am saying is that improbabilities such as these should be reviewed by the Commissioner.

I don’t know how the officiating will affect the Final Four, but I am sure that it will be a matter of discussion way after the league ends.

Tags: FEU, Green-Archers, La-Salle, NABRO, Petron, Tamaraws, UAAP

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Posted in The Green Mind