As far as FEU Tamaraws coach Sean Chambers is concerned, Elias Gish could’ve made a difference in his team’s 81-79 loss to the UST Growling Tigers on Wednesday at the Smart Araneta Coliseum. And it’s not necessarily because the lefty forward would’ve taken over or imposed his will.
According to Chambers, Gish not getting his usual minutes messed up FEU’s rotation and ultimately contributed to the Tamaraws’ second-half collapse. The biggest casualty, in Chambers’ estimation, was main man Kirby Mongcopa, who had been having a fantastic run in the UAAP Season 89 Men’s Basketball Tournament.
“I knew it was going to be a big challenge because we’re not going to have the services of Elias today pretty much because he’s been sick for the last three days. He’s been on IV and I knew we were going to have to put a lot of minutes on Kirby Mongcopa,” Chambers told Rebanse after the game. “It was just too many minutes for Kirby today, and that’s why I felt his performance wasn’t like in the last four days.”
True enough, Mongcopa went scoreless in the second half and attempted just seven times—a far cry from his 12-point first half where he went 6-for-13. His 12-point, 6-rebound, 1-assist effort was also a far cry from the 19 points, 6 rebounds, and 7 assists he recorded in a win over the Ateneo Blue Eagles and the 24 points, 7 rebounds, and 3 assists he tallied in a victory over the UP Fighting Maroons.
Gish, the Missing Piece
With Mongcopa taken out completely by UST’s ferocious defense, the rest of the Tamaraws struggled in the second half, scoring just 9 points in the third quarter and 19 in the fourth. The Growling Tigers, in contrast, exploded for 51 in the second half. Again, Chambers rued his messed-up rotation as a contributing factor for FEU’s tale of two halves.
“Before we had a good rotation with Elias, and Elias just couldn’t go today. So, when you take out a key piece like Elias, it changes your rotation actually. And I felt like we hit a wall in the third quarter where we couldn’t recover from…,” said Chambers, who also noted the desperation with which the Growling Tigers played. “And we knew that UST was going to be playing for their life because if they lost today, they were going to be in big trouble…. They fought, they were desperate, they got after it and came out with a nice win.”
It turns out, UST’s desperation and FEU’s Gish-less rotation made a whale of difference on Wednesday. Now, the squad from España is back to in the win column, while the Morayta side is back to the drawing board and waiting for Gish to get better.
