Photo by Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net
BOCAUE – He was given the license to shoot so Japeth Aguilar obliged.
Urged to not shy away from beyond the arc, the lengthy forward went bonkers from three, going on a perfect 5-of-5 clip for a career-high 32 points to lead Ginebra to an 86-79 win over Star on Christmas Day at the massive Philippine Arena.
“This is one of those moments in my basketball career that I never expected,” said Aguilar, a career 23-percent shooter from rainbow country. “At first I was hesitant to shoot a three-pointer, but when I took the first shot, it went in and I was happy.”
Aguilar shared that his hot shooting came as a surprise even to him, as he only wanted to follow coach Tim Cone’s orders to take charge and be Ginebra’s anchor on the defensive end.
“I was surprised with my offensive performance because my focus was to be honest was on defense, which was what coach Tim wanted to come from me. If you ask him, he has seven fundamentals on defense and he wants me to be an anchor on defense,” he said.
The Grand Slam-winning mentor wanted Aguilar to keep up with former players and Star mainstays Marc Pingris and Rafi Reavis, which is the reason why Aguilar was on his toes all game long, urging the Gin Kings to hold their fort on defense.
“They [Pingris, Reavis] were always the examples because they are committed defenders and I hold them as my
benchmarks. From the beginning of the game, I was just yelling to my teammates to stay low, play defense and you know, it’s true that offense will come in once you play defense.”
Cone said that from the start, Aguilar has had a green light to shoot and exploit Star’s defensive holes.
“We’ve been encouraging him to shoot threes and he hit his threes tonight. That’s a huge weapon that maybe we can continue to use and develop that as we go along.”
So promising was Aguilar’s performance that even Cone compared him to someone familiar: Japeth’s father, Peter.
“If you remember, I coached his dad Peter. And Peter was like the best shooting big man I’ve ever seen. So when I first saw Japeth, he looked exactly the same, same form, everything,” the winningest mentor in PBA history said. “Japeth has great form and great ability to be that kind of player that can shoot shots like that. His dad was lights out. So I’m not surprised by it. Hopefully, we don’t live by it, but that is a nice weapon to keep.”
Though the job is far from over with still a long conference to go, Aguilar wants to first savor this moment as Ginebra ends the year on a positive note.
“It’s a special moment in my career because sooner or later, I’m going look back in this game and say that I was part of this game, one of the greatest rivalries in the PBA,” he said.