Chiefs ride Pinto’s big 4th qtr for win over SBC

Chiefs ride Pinto’s big 4^th qtr for win over SBC

by rick olivares

“This was a statement game,” said Arellano University head coach Koy Banal after his Chiefs defeated San Beda College, 67-66, yesterday at the Filoil Flying V Hanes Premier Cup at the San Juan Arena.

With a minute and seven seconds left in the game, Pinto drove towards the basket where San Beda counterpart Baser Amer met him. The Chiefs’ backcourt general knocked down Amer then pulled up for a 15-foot jumper to make it 67-64.

But Arellano still wasn’t out of the woods just yet as Amer came right back and scored on a floater with 49 seconds left to come within a point. Then with eight seconds left, after a flubbed Chiefs offensive, Amer drove towards the basket once more. He didn’t see Chiefs shooting guard Levi Hernandez come from behind to swipe the ball away.

Arellano had a chance to put some more distance between them and the Red Lions but James Forrester missed two free throws. San Beda had one more chance with 5.4 seconds to win the match outright left but time ran out before they could attempt a shot.

Following a 56-54 Arellano lead at the end of the third period, the Red Lions opened the final 10 minutes with a 7-0 run.

Pinto subsequently had his imprint on every Arellano basket in the fourth period as he scored nine points and assisted on the bucket by power forward John Bangga.

Banal, who coached the Red Lions to the 2004 NCAA championship, paid tribute to his point guard by comparing him to Denok Miranda, his former court general at Far Eastern University where he also won a UAAP title in 2003. “Yung leadership and court savvy, I can compare John to Denok. Mas magaling nga siguro. Sorry Denok.”

“He (Pinto) is our go to guy, our spiritual leader. John is our catalyst. But we cannot just rely on one guy. The system we are running involves a lot of players at hindi lang si John, James, or Prince. You’ll never know when your number is called up.”

Speaking of numbers, the Red Lions had superior stats in terms of field goal percentage, rebounding, assists, and free throws made. However, Arellano made up for the deficiencies by hitting five three pointers as compared to the two of SBC and by taking better care of the ball as they had 15 turnovers to the 19 of the Red Lions.

“Ang motivation coming into this game was to make a statement,” underscored Banal whose charges inched closer to a quarterfinals berth in the summer tournament with a 5-2 record with one more to play against Jose Rizal University. “We won by just one-point now everyone will gun for us. Pagtitignan mo chamba yun. But the players made this happen. So you just have to be ready for what is to come.”

Arellano is now in solo second right behind undefeated National University, the defending champion with a 8-0 mark. San Beda fell to third with a 3-2 record while Adamson University, even with a similar record to the Red Lions is at fourth. The Far Eastern University Tamaraws have a chance to make it with a 3-3 slate.

Despite San Beda taking a nine-point lead, 44-35, after an Amer triple, at the 7:25 mark of the third period, the Chiefs patiently battled back behind two threes by James Forrester and one by Gio Jalalon. Their three-point lead at 67-64, was their biggest of the match.

Pinto top scored for the match with 17 points on top of compiling seven rebounds, three assists, and one steal. Co-captain James Forrester scored 11 points.

Rome dela Rosa and Amer led SBC with 14 and 13 points respectively. The Red Lions fell to a 3-2 slate with three more matches to go.

Arellano University 67 – Pinto 17, Forrester 11, Hernandez 6, Salcedo 6, Bangga 6, Enriquez 6, Jalalon 5, Cadavis 4, Caperal 2, Agovida 2, Margallo 2, Nicholls 0.

San Beda College 66 – Dela Rosa 14, Amer 13, Pascual 8, Adeogun 8, Abarcar 8, Semerad A. 7, Koga 4, Dela Cruz 2, Ludovice 2, Semerad D. 0, Abatayo 0, Villaruz 0, Mendoza 0.

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Watching John Pinto this year, I felt that he had upped his game. And seeing him play more consistently, I began to liken his play to some other fantabulous guard -- Denok Miranda. I've Tweeted about it on several occasions but I finally, I opened it during the post-match press conference to AU coach Koy Banal who seemed pleased with the comparison. Of course, Pinto didn't seem comfortable with the comparison.