MANILA, 15 July — Gerry Esplana, Shell’s veteran point guard, dribbled from one end of the court to the other and sank a twisting eight-footer with three-tenths of a second remaining to lead the Turbo Chargers to a 78-76 victory on Saturday night in the Philippine Basketball Association Samsung Commissioner’s Cup at the Cuneta Astrodome.
The upset-scoring Shell, which dealt idle Red Bull its first loss this conference, handed Alaska its second loss in five outings en route to its second win in five assignments. It is now tied with its victim, Federal Express and Selecta-RP at 2-3.
After John Arigo’s booming triple tied it at 76, 3.6 seconds left, Esplana wove around traffic and somehow made his shot trickle in to cap the Turbo Chargers’ gritty comeback from as many as 13 points down in the fourth quarter.
“It seems we have a habit of winning close games. But even before, we were never the type of team that won via routs. So I think everything is one track and this team is ready to go to the next level,” said Shell coach Perry Ronquillo, whose squad placed tenth in the Governor’s Cup, spawning trade rumors.
“Any team that places last will always try and change a few things. But I don’t think this is the time to talk about it. The team is coming together and there’s no point in trying to rock the boat,” Ronquillo explained.
Shell had five offensive boards in its last six possessions, two each from Johnny Jackson and new import George Banks, who debuted with 27 points and 14 boards, 10 off the offensive glass where the Turbo Chargers scored 19 second chance points.
“We did not crash the boards as well as we should have,” admitted Alaska coach Tim Cone, whose squad yielded 35 offensive rebounds.
Earlier, Selecta-RP, ranged against supposedly one of the league’s lightweight teams, struggled miserably and went down in defeat, 94-87, at the hands of Federal Express.
The Express, who had won just one of their first four games, surprisingly had little trouble dispatching the star-studded Nationals as they tied their victims as well as the San Miguel Beermen for sixth spot in the leader board.
Wynne Arboleda gave the Express a much-needed boost in the second quarter, rookie Yancy de Ocampo more than held his own against the Nationals’ big men and Frantz Pierre-Louis played brilliant in his limited stint on the floor.
Jermaine Walker, who scored 17 of his game-high 27 points in the second half, galvanized the Express together when his partner, Frantz Pierre-Louis, was benched for almost nine minutes spanning the last two quarters due to foul trouble.
While Shell posted its second win, Selecta-RP absorbed its first back-to-back loss in the conference after failing to find a go-to guy in the crunch.
National’s coach Jong Uichico admitted he wasn’t pleased with the way his troop engaged the Express.
“There’s no consistency,” mumbled Uichico. “We’re off on both ends of the court. We were slow in rebounding and a little late on defense.”
In the hope of finding the right chemistry, Uichico utilized 12 players but none of them clicked. In contrast, FedEx coach Derrick Pumaren used only seven men and all scored five or more.
“Our big guys will have to do a little more better,” said Uichico.
The Nationals gained a 41-39 edge of the boards but most of those came when the Express had the game already in control.
Dennis Espino tried with two surprise triples and Kenneth Duremdes added another, each one bringing the Nationals, who trailed by as much as 48-62, within four points.
But they had no choice but foul the wrong guys to stop the clock inside the last minute.
Dindo Pumaren saw his free throw shooting streak for the tournament snapped at 15, but he combined with Ren-Ren Ritualo for nine free throws in the stretch that kept FedEx’s head above water.
Eric Menk, who went into the game averaging just 4.5 points an outing, had 18 points to lead Selecta.
Danny Seigle, the Nationals’ top scorer with 17.5 points and 8.8 rebounds a night, failed to see action and would be out for the next two weeks due to a hamstring injury he suffered in the team’s loss to Sta. Lucia Realty last week.
The Nationals did have a bright spot in their three-point shooting, making 11 out of their 23 attempts from beyond the arc to continue leading the conference in three-point field goal percentage.
