Santos on Devance game-tying basket: He committed foul, double dribble

Arwind Santos. PBA IMAGES

LUCENA—San Miguel’s Arwind Santos thinks that Ginebra’s Joe Devance got away with two infractions in his game-tying tip that sent Game 2 of the 2017 PBA Philippine Cup Finals into overtime on Sunday.

Guarding Devance, the 2013 PBA Most Valuable Player did his best to deny the Gin Kings a shot in the final 3.2 seconds in the game. Though Santos was successful initially, Devance was relentless as he got his own miss and scored at the buzzer to tie the game at 110.

Santos, though, thinks otherwise.

“There should have been a foul. He pushed me off,” Santos said in Filipino. “He could also have been called for double-dribble because the ball didn’t hit the board.”

Unfortunately for San Miguel, the referees resisted blowing their whistles and allowed the game to go to extra time, where Ginebra emerged victorious, 124-118 to level the series at 1-1.

It was a sorry defeat for the Beermen, which had to fight back from 26 points down and even had a chance to snare the win in regulation.

“It was unfortunate. We were already there,” said Santos, who ended up with 23 points and 15 rebounds and shot 5-of-18 from threes.

Despite the devastating defeat, Santos still saw a silver lining, saying that amid the handicaps his team faced – from June Mar Fajardo and Chris Ross fouling out to Marcio Lassiter’s ejection in the third period – his team showed a gallant stand that should serve as an inspiration for Game 3.

“What’s good here is we came back from a big deficit. We were in foul trouble and the referees had bad calls on June Mar. But we’re no longer looking at that and we’re moving on to Game 3.”

Game 3 is on Wednesday at Smart Araneta Coliseum.