Ross grateful for teammates’ support: ‘They had my back’
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Chris Ross admits that he was lucky to have gotten a chance to atone for his crucial miscue after almost costing San Miguel its game against Rain or Shine on Friday.
With the Beermen trailing, 96-94, Ross handled the rock but failed to call for timeout despite the other players trying to sue for time. For fear of getting whistled for an eight-second violation, he threw a hurried cross-court pass to Alex Cabagnot but was intercepted by Jeff Chan.
“I tried to call a timeout, we all tried to call a timeout, but they didn’t give it to us so when I got it, I thought we’ll get an eight-second call so I just threw it,” recounted Ross.
But San Miguel just wouldn’t fold up and die, as Ross hounded Beau Belga in the ensuing possession and tipped the ball out of the big man’s grip to give his side one last chance with 5.2 seconds remaining.
Cabagnot would then cash in on the opportunity, drilling the huge jumper to send the game into overtime.
“I was lucky I had a chance to make up for it when I got the deflection for the steal and got a couple of assists to start the overtime,” he said.
Rejuvenated by the late game heroics in regulation, the Beermen pulled off the 107-101 overtime win against the Elasto Painters to keep their winning streak alive at seven.
Ross gave credit for his teammates for the support. “My teammates had my back. That’s what teammates are for, that’s what brothers are for. We have each others back and when one messes up, they pick you up.”
The victory also assured San Miguel of a top two spot that comes with the coveted twice-to-beat advantage in the quarterfinals.
“It’s one of our mini goals trying to win a championship,” he said. “Going to the conference, we said we wanted to get one of the top two slots and since we dropped that game to Phoenix a couple of months ago, we’re playing really good ball. We need one more game to clinch first place just to be sure.”
With the top spot still within reach, Ross said there’s no reason for the Beermen to slow down.
“That feels good, but we got to put that on the side and go on to our next goal. We’re not yet content. Work’s just getting started,” he said.
San Miguel wraps up its eliminations schedule against GlobalPort next Saturday before facing TNT on January 28.
