This time Cris really works like a charm

For one fleeting moment Sunday night, Cris Bolado was no longer the lucky charm, the "unknown quality" that would make a champion team. He simply lived a charmed life that very instance, firing an awkward baby-hook that lifted Red Bull to a 90-89 overtime victory over Sta. Lucia at the Big Dome.

With both teams coming off lopsided games - the Realtors from a blowout of Pop Cola and the Energizers from a loss to Barangay Ginebra - the Sunday mainer was supposed to be a stroll, if not a walk, in the Cubao area for Sta. Lucia.

And the Realtors had a good grip of the game in the regulation except that Red Bull kept a pesky distance before the newcomer team shocked Sta. Lucia behind a gutsy stand at crunch time and Bolado's heroics in the extra period.

Bolado, the man-mountain who had an uncanny habit of making it to the championship playoff, nailed that unorthodox hook over Marlou Aquino with three-tenths of a second remaining in the contest, capping a whirlwind Red Bull run for the win that would surely give the team some respect in the league.

"When I first saw this team at practice, I knew right away that it had character. I also knew that it had the heart," said Guiao moments after his first win back in the PBA ranks. "Hinihintay ko lang when the players would show that character and that heart."

Bolado, who has a string of nine straight championship appearances with three teams in a journeyman career that started with Alaska, was named Player of the Game by the television panel for his feat, which was not supposed to come with the game-winning play not designed for him.

"The play was really for Davonn (Harp). But the defense clamped down on him and the ball just found its way into the hands of Cris," added Guiao, who later said that had Bolado not made that shot, there wouldn't be bad things said by him or the rest of the team.

"We have a rule in the team that if anyone takes a good shot but doesn't make it, walang sisihan. Though that play was not designed for him, I thought it was a good shot. Kahit hindi pumasok iyon, good shot pa rin sa akin iyon."

The Realtors have themselves to blame for the loss, well, partly, after losing leads of as many as 13 points in one stretch. They executed poorly and their defense suddenly broke down when Guiao pulled off a master stroke of playing three big men simultaneously.

Also, rookie Paolo Mendoza, who scored 20 points in less than two quarters on the floor, was nowhere near the action down the stretch as coach Norman Black opted for experience and benched the very man who made the Sta. Lucia breakaway earlier happen.

Two things came to fore that night. One, is that Red Bull now has earned the confidence it needs to slug it out with the best and will never be taken for granted again, and two, that Bolado has now tasted victory coming on his own doing.