BY ANDREI BARRANTES
LIFE goes on for Far Eastern University even after the shock departure of its star forward in Veejay Pre, which happened on Wednesday midnight - confirmed by a Facebook post from the UAAP Season 87 Rookie of the Year himself.
And it certainly looked that way as the Tamaraws trampled the UE Red Warriors, 74-57, in the Playtime Cares Filoil Preseason Cup on Thursday in their first game officially without the versatile 6’5 forward on their roster.
READ: All's well with FEU and Pre in statement released by university
For head coach Sean Chambers, the win is a proof of the squad’s next man-up mentality, as everybody pretty much rallied around one another.
“Veejay is special, but we have guys in the building that can step up. We’re good, we’re family. Family goes through situations, highs and lows, and we just rally behind one another,” he said.
Chambers also shot down talks of disintegration within the FEU camp, especially after the 19-year-old’s exit from the team.
“I think that’s all fake news. I don’t think anybody is scrambling. We didn’t listen to outside noise,” he said.
“As I just said in the other room, it seems like there’s certain people out there who want to get clickbaits, likes, dislikes, and story conversations, and I get it, that’s the world we live in. But you see how the guys were all pulling for each other on the bench, we’ll be fine,” he added.
Brave Tamaraws power through
As life without Pre starts for the Tamaraws, Chambers singled out three players who showed the ability to step-up.
Jedric Daa, one of two starting forwards for this game, proved that he’s ready for a bigger role this season as he finished with 14 points and five rebounds, while Luke Felipe and Aeron Bagunu came off with solid games off the bench as well.
Felipe finished with 10 points and six rebounds while Bagunu added six points, eight boards and four assists.
“Jedric was phenomenal today. Luke and Aeron’s got to give us some solid, quality minutes, and Ona got to also give some solid minutes,” Chambers said.
The most exciting thing about it is they won handily despite their main guns’ struggles from the field as Janrey Pasaol and Jorick Bautista combined to shoot six of 26 from the field in the win.
“I expect Janrey to be better, I expect Doy (Jorick) to be better. We’re getting our guys into situations for them to be successful, so I was very happy with them today,” he added.
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