The FEU bench celebrates after Mac Belo’s put back at the buzzer sent the Tamaraws into the finals for the second straight year. Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net
The Ateneo crowd was ready to explode in celebration as Blue Eagles rookie Adrian Wong broke away for a potential game-winning layup in the waning seconds of their Final Four game against Far Eastern University on Saturday.
Wong had Far Eastern University guard Roger Pogoy trailing him but in no position to pose a serious challenge, the Ateneo community was on its feet anticipating the score going into the Blue Eagles’ favor with the game currently tied at 74 but then Wong missed.
“He could’ve made it,” Pogoy, who also tied the game at 74 with a triple, said of Wong’s layup in Filipino.
What could’ve been a routine layup for Wong became even more difficult as the rookie leaned slightly to his right in an attempt to get a foul on Pogoy, but the referees held their breaths and no whistles were blown and no Atenean cheered.
“He was really open then he bumped me so he lost his balance,” Pogoy said. “I know, in my mind, I was going to catch up to him no matter what as long as I don’t get whistled for a foul.”
Pogoy breathed a massive sigh of relief as he turned in a massive defensive stop that led to a rumble on his side of the court when Mac Belo banked in Mike Tolomia’s missed layup and the 76-74 score flashed on the big screen.
Wong, for his part, knew there was contact but that late in the game and the series on the line referees tend to hold their breaths.
“There was contact, but the refs aren’t going to call that, we all know that,” Wong said.