Roger Pogoy of FEU drives to the basket in the recent UAAP Finals.
FEU mentor Nash Racela says Talisay City native Roger Pogoy played key role in team’s title run
If ever there was a shred of doubt that remained with regards to the significance of Cebuano rising star Roger Ray Pogoy to the Far Eastern University (FEU) Tamaraws’ championship run in Season 78 of the UAAP, FEU head coach Nash Racela obliterated it with this definitive statement just hours after Game Three’s final buzzer.
“Without Roger Pogoy, we wouldn’t be where we are right now,” said the soft-spoken mentor of the Cebuano-laden Tamaraws whose 67-62 win over the University of Santo Tomas (UST) Growling Tigers in Game Three on Wednesday elevated them back to the throne for the first time in a decade.
“Roger was our most consistent player all season long and he, Mac (Belo) and Mike (Tolomia) carried us to the title with their performance in Game Three,” shared Racela in an exclusive talk with Cebu Daily News.
Indeed, Pogoy’s heroics – scoring seven straight in a sizzling 14-3 windup – pushed FEU to its 19th basketball crown in the UAAP. It was a gritty performance by the former University of Cebu (UC) hotshot who, before his fourth period scoring spree, was shooting a horrid 2-of-12 clip from the field and needed a pep talk from his fellow Cebuano, assistant coach Ryan Betia, to get him going.
“Roger was really struggling. So I sat him down beside me and told him ‘this is your game, you can do this,’ Fortunately, he responded,” said Betia, a long-time assistant with the University of San Carlos (USC) before transferring to FEU several years ago.
Pogoy, himself, confirmed Betia’s assessment.
“I was so frustrated because I couldn’t shoot,” confessed the pride of Talisay City.
With UST threatening to pull the rug from under FEU in the form of a blistering 16-0 run that spanned the third and fourth periods, and with a 57-51 deficit staring them dead in the eye, Racela recalled gathering his troops one more time to remind them of what FEU basketball was.
“We just made several adjustments during that UST run and fortunately, we were able to get some easy baskets, some transition baskets that gave us back the momentum,” Racela related.
What was constant though was the smothering defense that FEU had for UST’s star Kevin Ferrer, who was forced into a nightmare of a game – seven points on 2-of-7 shooting after a 29-point performance in Game Two.
While Ferrer faltered, Pogoy delivered. And when he made the go-ahead three-pointer that put FEU in front for good, Pogoy knew right then that the moment, the game, the title was theirs.
“I told myself ‘this is it!’, We will be champions because the momentum was with us.”