Juami Tiongson admitted he was unaware of the situation late in Terrafirma’s PBA Season 48 Philippine Cup encounter versus Blackwater on Saturday.
But that misread of sorts eventually brought more good than harm.
His three-pointer ultimately enabled the Dyip to escape with the 92-91 decision – and get the crew back on track after losing their two previous assignments.
“Akala ko talaga, down three kami,” said the star guard shortly after the win at the Rizal Memorial Coliseum. “That’s why I was going for the three-point shot.”
Tiongson perhaps thought that opposing guard Rey Nambatac had pushed the Bossing lead to three during his trip to the foul line with 22.1 seconds to go.
However, the lefty playmaker only split his charities to make a 91-89 count.
That led to Tiongson’s decision to pull up for a triple as he aimed to tie the game. It proved to be the go-ahead bucket they badly needed instead.
But Tiongson hardly knew that he had just won the game for Terrafirma until his teammates charged toward him, all of them celebrating.
“When I made the shot, I was celebrating a bit, and my teammates were running towards me,” the seasoned gunslinger recalled, smiling.
“I was thinking, ‘Overtime pa tayo, bakit kayo nagse-celebrate? Like, we still have five more minutes.’ Nagulat ako na panalo pala kami, I didn’t know.”
Tiongson finished with 20 points – 16 of which he made in the second half as he overcame his early shooting struggles to help Terrafirma rally from 19 down.
The 33-year-old dedicated his performance to his late grandmother.
“Glory to God – and my Lola. I know she was there for me,” he said.
“Actually praying for her. Kasi in the first half, I was really struggling – I couldn’t make any shot, my decision-making was so bad. But I just prayed to my Lola. She made it happen for me,” he added.
Not only did Tiongson lift the Dyip back to the win column, but his heroics have helped his team as well to hike their win-loss record to 3-2.
As good as their position presently is, though, none of them wants to get too confident.
“Personally, masaya na 3-2 kami. Pero at the same time, ayoko maging overconfident. Ayoko mag-relax,” he said.
“Kasi hindi pa namin kinakalaban ‘yung elite teams like San Miguel, Ginebra,” he added. “From here, pahirap na nang pahirap eh. I think ‘yung magic number is five or six wins, so there are two to three more wins. We can’t relax.”
