Botched chance allows Letran to win over JRU

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 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, 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 an 84-77 overtime win for a 4-6 slate (JRU is at 6-4).