Santi Santillan is determined to play through the pain now that Rain or Shine is on the brink of elimination in the PBA Season 49 Governors’ Cup semifinals.
The sweet-shooting forward vowed to be in action for the all-important Game 5 on Friday in Antipolo even after being hounded by a recurring Achilles issue early in their eventual defeat to TNT in Game 4 on Wednesday.
“Kailangan eh,” he told reporters moments after the 81-79 loss at the SMART Araneta Coliseum.
“Kasi wala si Caelan [Tiongson]. Si Gabe [Norwood[ nga, sumakit ‘yung hamstring niya … Kaya kailangan talaga ilaro hanggang Friday.”
Santillan has actually been braving the injury since the elimination round, but it flared up and felt close to unbearable in Game 4 — so much so that he needed to take medication to at least be able to play through it.
“Nung bago pa mag-second half, talagang sobrang sakit ng Achilles,” he recalled. “So, nagpaayos ako, nag-tape agad. At least nabawasan, kasi uminom na rin ako ng gamot nung halftime. Ayun, nabawasan naman nung second half.”
The La Salle product managed to finish the game, even delivering in crunch time when he converted a three-point play — a cleanup of Andrei Caracut’s missed triple — to make it a 79-all count with 45.7 seconds left.
But it proved to be the Elasto Painters’ last gasp as Rondae Hollis-Jefferson took over afterwards, ultimately enabling the Tropang Giga to come away with the 81-79 victory and build a commanding 3-1 lead in their best-of-7 series.
The loss couldn’t get any tougher for RoS as it had the chance to reduce the series to a virtual best-of-3, only to fall just short at the end.
“Well, wala na kaming magagawa e. Ito na sana ‘yung chance namin maka-tie e, para mabaliktad yung momentum, ‘di ba,” lamented Santillan, who finished with 11 points and five rebounds plus a steal in 23 minutes.
Still, the 28-year-old Cebuano chooses to stay defiant heading into their do-or-die two nights from now, aiming of course to live to fight another day.
“Kailangan ano pa rin, 100 percent ‘yung kumpiyansa namin,” said Santillan while also allaying fears of a serious injury.
“Tiwala lang sa sarili.”
