Photo by Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net
Committing a crucial miscue in Rain or Shine’s sorry 107-101 overtime defeat to San Miguel, Beau Belga is expecting to be up all night in regret.
“Bad trip,” he declared.
And Belga has every reason to feel bad after he lost grip of the ball late in regulation, giving the Beermen one last opportunity which they took full advantage of.
READ: Clutch Cabagnot, Fajardo lead San Miguel to OT win
“There’s no one else to be blamed. I know it was my fault. I was waiting for them to foul. I didn’t expect that Chris Ross would swipe from the back. I was surprised that the ball was swiped to my side,” he said in Filipino.
June Mar Fajardo secured the steal with 5.2 seconds remaining, which led to Alex Cabagnot’s jumper that forced overtime with 1.8 ticks left in the fourth period.
The Beermen seemed to have been recharged by the shot as they cruised to their seventh straight win in the extra five minutes.
READ: Cabagnot delivers in clutch again: ‘That’s why I’m on the floor’
For Belga, there’s nothing more frustrating knowing that the Elasto Painters came so close to the victory.
“We were already winning. Had I been fouled there, you’ll never know what will happen. I know I won’t be able to sleep tonight.”
Rain or Shine squandered a golden chance to make a case for the top two spot and fell to a 5-3 slate, still needing another win to assure itself of a quarterfinal seat.
“It’s unfortunate that we missed a spot in the playoffs. We already had it, but we still lost it,” the big man rued.
But Belga said that this loss would only motivate the Elasto Painters going into their final three games.
“Coach told us to not blame each other. This should serve as a lesson for us and we can still try to improve. Maybe we can still make this work. We still have a chance to make it to the top two.”