Chris McCullough could only sit in the SMART Araneta Coliseum’s hallway after playing over 57 minutes in the San Miguel Beermen’s 127-125 double-overtime win over the TNT KaTropa in Game Two of the 2019 PBA Commissioner’s Cup Finals on Wednesday.
The 6-foot-10 forward was visibly exhausted after giving his all in the tightly-fought ballgame. He finished with 32 points on 13-of-23 shooting, 22 rebounds, seven assists, two steals, and a block.
McCullough wasn’t even aware he’d logged that many minutes. He then confessed he had never played that long before.
“What?! Oh my God, I’m tired. I can’t explain.
“I’ve never played 57 minutes before. But we got the win. Anything that we need to win,” said a surprised McCullough, who had been seeing action for an average of 41 minutes prior to Wednesday.
San Miguel actually had a solid start into the match, as they built a 17-point advantage in the second frame. Unfortunately, they then lost the advantage as the KaTropa fought back and took a 105-101 lead with less than a minute to go in the fourth quarter.
However, that would only be a precursor of a back-and-forth match that needed two extra periods to finish.
Asked if these kinds of games worry McCullough, he pointed out that the way they close out matches matters more.
“Not really [worried]. Basketball is a lot of a back-and-forth game. They might go on a run, we might go on a run. It’s a long game. The game of basketball, you gotta finish the game, and that’s what we did,” said the former NBA cager.
“We got a stop, we got some rebounds, got some steals – C-Ross got a steal and a lay-up. And we finished the game,” he added, referring to Chris Ross’ steal that led to a lay-up and gave them a 126-122 lead with 15.6 ticks left to play.
“It was a long game. But we did what we had to do, we got the win. We finished the game.”
The series is now tied at one game apiece. The deadlock will be broken again come Game Three on Friday, August 9, still at the Big Dome. And for McCullough, he’s bracing for yet another tough game – or “dogfight” as he called it.
“We’re preparing for another tough game, a dogfight. Just go out there and we gotta do everything we gotta do to get the win.”
