Rain or Shine’s Quiñahan savors first game-winner of career

JR Quiñahan FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—Rain or Shine big man JR Quiñahan had been wanting to have his own game-winning moment.

Quiñahan finally had his Wednesday night as he swished a buzzer-beating 3-pointer to beat Meralco, 89-86. He also made it despite given only 0.7 tenths of a second left to take the shot.

“I just said to myself that if I get to receive the ball, I’d release it as quick as I can,” Quiñahan recalled, who was the last option out of head coach Yeng Guiao’s final huddle.

“We had four options, first Jeff will pop out then Beau, then I’d give a back pick for Paul and coach told us that the defense will switch once Paul cuts to the basket and they will have a smaller man on me,” the undersized center Quiñahan told INQUIRER.net, who had missed his first three attempts from deep before making the shot that mattered most.

True enough, after Paul Lee, who has a knack of making last-second shots, cut towards the basket, the defense switched and Bolts guard Gary David had to cover Quiñahan at the left wing.

“Once I got the ball I just shot it not minding the clock,” Quiñahan said in Filipino, who had released the ball with time to spare after the review clearly showed the ball left his shooting hand with still 0.3 tenths of a second to go.

“It was the first game-winning shot of my career and it has always been one of my dreams to make one. As a player you practice and you see it happen in the NBA and it happened,” said the seven-year center Quiñahan, smiling.

Quiñahan’s game-winning trey also couldn’t have come at a better time with the Elasto Painters, who fanned their winning streak to six games for a 10-3 record, still in contention for a twice-to-beat incentive in the playoffs.

“This win is important because we still have a chance for the twice-to-beat. We don’t care about the other teams, we just want to keep on winning.”

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