MANILA, 26 March 2004 — In what could be his first and last game as head coach this year, Shell interim coach Jig Mendoza steered the Turbo Chargers to a pulsating 100-98 overtime victory over the Coca-Cola Tigers in the Gran Matador PBA Fiesta Conference at the Araneta Coliseum on a day when Shell formally announced that Leo Austria will be the team’s next head coach.
But brief his stint may be, Mendoza made sure it was a memorable one as Ronald Tubid came up with the points that mattered most, halving his charities with 1.1 seconds to go in extra period after being fouled by Tiger Ato Morano.
Before that, Raffy Reavis’ pass meant for Mark Sanford never reached the import’s hands and found its way to Tubid instead.
Mendoza, who turns 36 on Monday, was tapped to coach last night after Shell handed the walking papers of American coach John Moran. The team made another announcement at halftime, appointing a former Shell player, Leo Austria, to the job.
The last time Coca-Cola scored was when Sanford drained a jumper for a 98-96 lead, 1:33 remaining. Tubid then hit a running jumper off Morano, but could not make the bonus charity.
Rensy Bajar split his charities off a Johnny Abarrientos foul with 6.4 seconds to go to make it 99-98, just before the costly turnover that sent Tubid, a former University of the East stalwart, to the stripe.
Regulation ended at 92-all.
Tubid finished with 18 points second only to the team-high 20 points of Mike Hrabak. Shell import Marek added 18 of his own while Rensy Bajar chipped in 11 markers. Other than Sanford only Jeff Cariaso scored in twin digits for Coke. Johnny Abarrientos barely missed a triple-double, grabbing 12 rebounds, issuing 12 assists but tallying only 8 points.
In the second game, Sta. Lucia import Derrick Brown scored the crucial points before fouling out and Dennis Espino provided the marginal points on two free throws to power Sta. Lucia to its first victory in six games.
Brown tripped on teammate Espino at the baseline but somehow drained his off-balanced jumper to push the Realtors to a 98-90 lead with a minute 12 seconds to go in the game. He fouled out on the next play but his heroics proved enough for his team to seal the victory. Caguioa then led a fiery Ginebra 8-0 windup, scoring 7 successive points, to tie the count at 98-all. Espino then scored two crucial free throws to seal the game.
Gerard Francisco, reactivated after being sidelined for a hand injury, proved the missing piece of the puzzle which spelled the Sta. Lucia victory. He finished with only 8 points but 6 of those came in the payoff fourth period.
