THE more things change, the more they stay the same for Far Eastern University and its not so friendly neighbor in España.
The Tamaraws' best start since 2015 came to a screeching halt no thanks to University of Santo Tomas' come from behind win on Wednesday.
READ: Finally on-point UST douses cold water on red-hot FEU
This, even though the green-and-gold led by as much as 15 points at one point.
Down low, the battle between reigning Rookie of the Year Collins Akowe and former Mythical Five inductee Mo Konateh was as good as advertised, with the former finishing with 14 points and 19 rebounds and the latter getting with 18 markers and 15 boards.
Still, it was the Growling Tigers' backcourt that proved to be the difference - at least according to FEU head coach Sean Chambers.
“They're one of the few teams that have really big guards, so their guards are bigger than our typical guards of Janrey [Pasaol] and Jorick Bautista. They kind of give us a problem with their size," he said.
Indeed, Konateh, Pasaol, Bautista, and even Kirby Mongcopa all shot below 30-percent - something that has only happened against the black-and-gold.
Tamaraws' toughest test
Right after beating last season’s finalists in back-to-back games, Chambers was already the first to point out that his Tams have always had trouble against UST.
His tune didn't change after he and his wards were sent crashing back to earth.
As he put it, “We knew that UST was gonna be playing for their life because if they lost today, they were gonna be in big trouble. So kudos to them. They fought. They were desperate. They got after it and came out with a nice win.”
Nonetheless, the American tactician is liking how FEU is already in the thick of things right out the gates - even if getting the better of their fierce foes from a few blocks aways remains unchecked on the Tamaraws' to-do list.
“To be honest, if anybody came into season and said, 'Hey, in the first round, you're either 4-3 or 5-2. If somebody said, you're going to beat La Salle, Ateneo, and you're going to beat UP for the first time in eight years, everybody in FEU will go, yeah, we'll sign up for that,” he said.
“We knew we could have played better. But again, we just got to find a way to beat UST.”
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