Robert Jaworski, that charismatic, enigmatic basketball icon responsible for shaping the PBA to what it is today, was formally retired last night.
And what better way for his former team, Barangay Ginebra, to put a lid on the entire thing.
The Gin Kings came charging back from 13 points down against rock-solid Petron Blaze before prevailing in high-wire style, 87-85, for a second straight win in the Governors’ Cup semifinals carved out before 15,000 raucous fans at the Araneta Coliseum.
Import Cedric Bozeman, after firing blanks practically the entire night, dropped an unorthodox-looking one-handed floater with three-tenths of a second remaining as the Gin Kings actually won a third consecutive game to rise to 7-4 overall.
And that victory completely overshadowed the 99-86 win Rain or Shine pulled out against Meralco in the first game that practically assured the Elasto Painters of their first-ever march in a championship series.
“I don’t know if it’s a coincidence, but God couldn’t have written it (script for the game) better,” said Ginebra coach Siot Tanquingcen. “We were celebrating the foundation of Barangay Ginebra (Jaworski).
“We pulled out his (Jaworski) legacy: never say die,” he continued. “That’s the best send-off, retirement gift we could give him.” Bozeman converted the game-winner off a broken play, as Mark Caguioa, the main option with Ginebra having possession with 15.9 seconds left, was shadowed by new Petron import Marcus Faison.
“The ball was supposed to go to Mark,” Tanquingcen admitted. “But we had to do an adlib after the players read the defense (on Caguioa). They made their decision at the last second.” Alex Cabagnot had tied the game for the last time at 85 by hitting a stretching layup.
The final 25 seconds were actually played with a lot of brilliance from both sides as rookie Dylan Ababou gave the Kings an 85-83 lead by completing a three-point play off Jay Washington after snaring down an offensive rebound off a free throw miss by Rico Maierhofer.
Caguioa scored 17 of his team-high 25 points in the final two quarters as the huge crowd started chanting M-V-P! M-V-P! But he had a crucial miss with the Kings down by one with under a minute left only for Ababou and Bozeman to save the day for Ginebra.
“I was throwing up bricks all night, missing jumpers, layups,” Bozeman, who had 13 points that went with 11 rebounds, said in winning Player of the Game honors. “My teammates just kept believing in me.” Faison, playing just his second game after arriving as Eddie Basden’s replacement, scored 19 points but had just two points in each of the final two quarters as Petron dropped to fourth place at 6-5. B-Meg is still in second with a 7-3 slate.
And while the Ginebra-Petron game was obviously the better match to watch, the Rain or Shine victory had a lot of significance as far as the young franchise in concerned.
The Painters held the Bolts to just 15 fourth quarter points to win running away and earn at least a playoff for the second best-of-seven series slot.
Jamelle Cornley scattered 21 points, had 14 rebounds and four assists and Paul Lee contributed 16 in another solid starting job at the point guard spot.
But the real fourth quarter heroes for the Painters were Ronjay Buenafe and Beau Belga, who hit four triples between them that completely befuddled the Meralco defense.
“I think we are assured of a playoff (for the second berth),” coach Yeng Guiao, who was thrown out with under three seconds left in the first half, said. “I think the magic number is 10, and right now, we have three chances.” “And we would want to get that win as early as we can,” added Guiao, who got tossed out because of successive technical fouls for vehemently protesting a non-call.