by rick olivares
There’s this saying that if you can’t win it in
regulation then it’s not for you in overtime.
Of course this isn’t true all the time.
Nevertheless, one rues missed chances.
With 47 seconds left in the game and the scored tied
at 68-all, the Jose Rizal Heavy Bombers had the ball. Philip Paniamogan got the
ball on the right side of the three-point arc with Letran’s Kevin Racal
guarding him. Michael Mabulac went up his to set a screen and the two ran the
pick and roll. As Paniamogan drew two defenders, he dropped the ball to Mabulac
who drove the lane where he was met by Knights’ power forward Jamil Gabawan.
Mabulac pumped and threw up an off-balanced shot that squarely hit the window.
The ball dropped for a two-point lead with 30 seconds left.
Letran head coach Caloy Garcia called time.
The play was for either Mark Cruz to get the ball
high and for a high screen and create if not try and beat his man.
But JRU’s John Gorospe lost Gabawan in the shuffle
(for some reason Abdul Wahab Razak was pulled out on defense) leaving the
Knights’ bruising power forward all alone underneath the basket with no Heavy
Bomber anywhere in sight. Racal pitched threw an overhand pass to him and
Gabawan could only oblige. 70-all.
It was JRU’s turn to burn a timeout with 29.9 seconds
left in the game.
When play resumed, Paniamogan (26 points but only two
in the fourth and none in extension) received the ball and stayed close to the
half court line.
I felt it was a mistake because he had Racal in front
of him and now way was the JRU sniper going to throw up a 40-footer. So he
backed up leaving him not much room to maneuver. More so since Paniamogan is
not that good driving from a set position as opposed to open court basketball.
Mistake number two was there was no pick coming and when Mabulac got the ball,
he was far from his comfort zone. Although Mike has a 15-foot jumper in him he
doesn’t have one shooting on the run. He missed badly and the game went into
extension.
Once in overtime, Mark Cruz and Rey Nambatac killed
JRU with their own heavy bombing from the outside.
Nambatac picked off an inbound pass (to start the
extension period) by Paniamogan to Gio Lasquety who wasn’t aware that the
Letran guard was playing him tight.
Nambatac scooted off for a layup after which Cruz
buried back-to-back treys from either side of the arc for an eight-point bulge.
JRU was able to get back but three missed free throws
(one by Mabulac and two by Teytey Teodoro) prevent them from notching the count
at 78-all.
Letran pulled away for a 84-77 win for a 4-6 slate
(JRU is at 6-4).
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