Jeff Chan of Rain or Shine vs LA Tenorio of Ginebra. PBA IMAGE BY NUKI SABIO
Less than two minutes remaining in the 48, they held on to an 87-87 tie with the bruising Rain or Shine team.
Ginebra import Michael Dunigan split his free-throws with 1:47 left in the fourth to tie the game that sent their thousands of supporters inside Mall of Asia Arena nearer to Nirvana.
Then, a figure, running down the left side of the floor. A floor which turned to River Styx and Jeff Chan the navigator of the boat.
Chan squared his feet, tucked his elbow in, release. Bang. Rain or Shine had a 90-87 lead with 1:33 remaining.
Mark Caguioa and Greg Slaughter then pulled through for the damaged Ginebra, hitting back-to-back baskets to take a 91-90 lead with 45.8 remaining in the fourth.
Ginebra fans were in uproar. Their team has the chance to go on a rubber match.
Then as luck would have it, the parquet floor once more became the rotten Styx and Chan was once again on the boat.
Ginebra will have to pay. They would pay with their 29th turnover of the game.
Near the end of the shot clock, Chan swiped the ball from Dunigan, blazed through the lane, jumped to the basket, layup, swish, 92-91.
Ginebra still had 4.9 seconds remaining. Several seconds to turn their fortunes around.
Jayjay Helterbrand, a former MVP, inbounded the ball to Slaughter who immediately gave it back to Helterbrand.
He drove right, Elasto Painters’ best perimeter defender Gabe Norwood stuck to him. Helterbrand threw the ball for a shot, hoping for a foul.
There was a whistle, but there wasn’t a foul called. Helterbrand hit the shot clock that signified an out of bounds ball. It also signified their 30th turnover.
All the clocks read 0.6 seconds. It all dwindled down. Game over.
Ginebra was once again out of the title race.
Japeth Aguilar, who played through a finger and ankle injury, obviously dejected, had only a few words for their loss.
“You can’t win with 30 turnovers,” Aguilar said.
His frontcourt buddy, the young Slaughter, could not hide his frustrations.
He was a winner in college but hasn’t found a title in the pros.
“I hate losing,” Slaughter mustered.
As Rain or Shine prepares for the semifinals, Ginebra is once again left to ponder what happened to their conference. RC