FEU grounds Adamson to arrange showdown with Ateneo

Alex Nuyles will banner the Falcons in next year's action. 

The planned “Angry Birds” title showdown has been gatecrashed by FEU.

But hey, Tamaraws have birds right?

Ahem.

The FEU Tamaraws arranged a showdown against the defending champions Ateneo Blue Eagles after a heart-stopping win over the Adamson Soaring Falcons, 78 to 74. The game was decided when Adamson failed to clear the rebound at the dying seconds. This will be bye-bye time for Lester Alvarez, Jan Colina, Janus Lozada, and Jerick Canada. The Falcons wasted their twice-to-beat edge that would have given them their first trip to the finals since Marlou Aquino and Kenneth Duremdes brought them to the dance during the 90's. 

Alvarez should have a shot at the early second round in the 2012 PBA Draft while the rest need to make it big in the D-League to have at least a late second round or a third round selection. With all the Fil-Ams, most of the top college players, and the remainder of the Smart-Gilas squad as possible applicants, I think the draft will be knee-deep in terms of talent.

Meanwhile, FEU made it close with last year’s Rookie of the Year Terrence Romeo had 15 points, 6 rebounds, and 6 assists, last year’s MVP RR Garcia pumping in 11 points, 6 rebounds, and 3 assists, and Smart-Gilas mainstay Aldrech Ramos scored a double-double with 10 points and 12 rebounds.

But the Tamaraws also had to lean on the exploits of their two rookies Cris Tolomia who finished with a game-high 19 points, 7 rebounds, and 4 assists and Russel Escoto who is looking like the newer version of Aldrech with 10 points and 9 rebounds. Tolomia wielded nine points in the third quarter for the Tams.

Jerick Canada pulled in massive numbers and ended up with 14 points in his final game for his school while Eric Camson and Alex Nuyles, the likely one-two punch of next year’s Falcons had 13 and 12 respectively. These three men came off the bench as none of their starters finished in double digits.

The Tamaraws led the game in rebounds 49 to 35 as well as in assists 18 to 12 but the Falcons had 8 steals compared to FEU’s 5. Meanwhile the Falcons hit just 58 percent of their free throws unlike the Tams that nailed 73 percent at the charity stripe.

Game over.