Clouds of questions float above the Alaska Aces’ 103-102 loss to the Barangay Ginebra San Miguel on Sunday night, mostly involving import Cory Jefferson and his potential game-winning jumper in the game’s waning seconds.
With 5.8 ticks left to play and with Alaska trailing, 103-102, Jefferson caught the ball from the right elbow, made a pump fake, and launched a quick jumper against Justin Brownlee’s defense. But his shot hit nothing but air.
And that was the play where the issue kicked in.
Jefferson’s shot was clearly contested by his counterpart, leading to the unwanted result. But many are saying that there should have been a foul called against Brownlee, saying that there was a contact with Jefferson while shooting.
But despite the missed call, the 24-year-old Aces import does not want to dwell on it.
“It just did not go our way,” said the 6-foot-9 American out of Tacoma, Washington, who was obviously down and weary as he and the Aces absorbed their third loss in a row, which drags their card to 4-3.
But aside from the alleged no-call, the other question that surrounds the play is Jefferson’s decision to pull up, instead of going hard to the rim to either score easily or fish for a foul, since Ginebra were already in a penalty situation.
However, Jefferson remains firm on his decision, saying that those are the kind of shots he’s used to take.
“That’s my shot. I’ll take it every day of the week, every time we get it, I’ll take that shot, no problem with it,” said Jefferson, who finished with 25 points on 17 shots alongside 18 rebounds to lead Alaska.
Still, despite the three-game skid of the Aces right now in the 2017 Commissioner’s Cup, Jefferson assures that the team’s morale is still good.
“It’s one of the best games we’ve played, although we took the loss. We lost by one. We played well, we messed up some things a little bit, but other than that, we played well. So our morale is good,” said Jefferson, who is averaging 31.67 points and 13.17 boards this conference.
“Still plenty of games left. We can still make the playoffs. We’re good.”
