Adamson rookie Matthew Montebon. –MARLO CUETO/INQUIRER.net
MANILA, Philippines—When the Adamson Soaring Falcons needed a hero to take down Ateneo, they turned to one of their rookies to take the biggest shot of the game.
With the Blue Eagles leading, 60-58, Adamson put the rock on Matthew Montebon’s hand and he delivered a buzzer-beating three-pointer to get the 61-60 victory in the Filoil EcoOil Preseason Cup.
Was it nerves of steel or just a spur-of-the-moment? Not quite, as Montebon said he was always confident in taking those types of shots.
“I saw that there was like five seconds [left] but I almost lost the ball so I figured I only had a couple seconds and I just shot it,” the Filipino-American explained.
“I’m pretty confident [with the shot.] When you put the work in, repetitions and all that, the confidence just comes in.”
It was not a lucky shot either for the playmaker, as he sank all of his five attempts from the field for a perfect hundred percent shooting clip on his way to a team-high 13 points.
Seeing this, coach Nash Racela was unbothered when he saw Montebon be the last Soaring Falcon to hold the ball in the dying seconds.
“I had to remind Monty that he needs to take a shot if he’s open. He was looking to be a pass-first point guard,” Racela said.
“Our encouragement for the players and Monty was to make the right decisions because they were making decisions on the fly,” he added.
Without star guards Jerom Lastimosa and Joem Sabandal, Montebon has stepped up to the plate for the Falcons, posting averages of 4.6 markers, 3.7 boards and 3.1 assists per game.
He will, however, bolster Adamson in the coming UAAP Season 86 with both Lastimosa and Sabandal on the back court.