Sedric Webber endured a sprained right ankle to help Shell rally from a nine-point deficit in the last five minutes of play in hacking out a 91-88 decision over FedEx last night in the Samsung PBA Reinforced Conference at the Astrodome.
Though suffering the injury in the third quarter, Webber gamely returned to the floor in the payoff period and made clutch plays as the Turbochargers checked a two-game skid and improved their win-loss record to 2-2.
Webber scored on a semi-hook, dished out an assist to Eddie Laure then made two charities all inside the last 57 seconds, punctuating a stirring Shell comeback from nine points down at 73-84.
The Express, who scored only four points in the last five minutes of the game, suffered a third loss in five outings.
In the King of the Court one-on-one feature later on, Red Bull Barako’s Davonn Harp overpowered Barangay Ginebra’s Jun Limpot, 17-10, to join Shell’s Tony dela Cruz in the next round of play in the 6-foot-4 and above category. Dela Cruz whipped Coca-Cola’s Rafi Reavis Sunday.
"That’s a big-time struggle. We missed a lot of layups and we missed a lot of free throws. Based on those two things, we should have lost the game. But there’s another thing called resiliency," said Shell coach Perry Ronquillo.
"But as (Alaska) coach Tim Cone has said, it’s gonna be a tough struggle in our bracket. And in our case, if we’ll win a game, that’s because we work hard. That’s the bottomline," Ronquillo said.
on what he expected to be dogfight in Group B composed of Shell, Coca-Cola, Talk n Text, Ginebra and Red Bull Barako.
It was a sorry loss for the Express who took control most of the way only to sag and collapse at endgame.
A missed slam and a misfired shorts stab by Terrence Shannon hastened FedEx’s defeat.
Webber made it 91-88 with time down to 22.8 seconds after Shannon muffed the close-range shot then quickly made a foul.
The Express had a chance to send the game into overtime but Renren Ritualo, Wynne Arboleda and John Ferriols missed a three-point attempt each.
Meanwhile, the season-ending tourney visits Malolos, Bulacan today, pitting Sta. Lucia Realty and San Miguel Beer in another weekend out-of-town sortie sponsored by Air Philippines.