Sean Anthony fouled out in the waning seconds of his NorthPort Batang Pier’s match with the Meralco Bolts, Friday evening. But even if he left the game unceremoniously, the versatile forward had already inflicted the damage.
The 6-foot-4 forward nailed a booming triple with exactly 24 seconds left to play – about 15 seconds before he fouled out – to strike the dagger into the heart of Meralco and to help his NorthPort succeed with a 99-94 victory.
“I mean, our backs were against the wall.
“We can’t afford to lose one game so it was just one game at a time and play our hearts out. Luckily we were able to close it out in the fourth quarter,” said Anthony, who led the Batang Pier with 26 points.
This wasn’t his best game since he returned from a leg injury, but this is his best as far as being clutch is concerned. And for Anthony, he’s satisfied that he was able to rise to the challenge of stepping up in the end-game.
“With my injury, it took me a couple of games to find my rhythm. I had to give myself a good hard look in the mirror – I was shying away in the fourth quarter and stuff,” shared Anthony, who’s now in his eighth season in the league.
“We were lucky to pull it out with a win.”
After six straight losses, the Batang Pier have now won two in a row, meaning that they are still in the running for a spot in the next round. And for Anthony, their recent victory was simply brought upon by their execution.
‘We’ve been working on our execution. We’ve been competing in practice where we have to win scrimmages. We’re learning how to execute and find the open guy, it’s been working the past two games and hopefully it carries through.”
