Screw-tightening experience - Jong

Eric Menk beat the final buzzer with a booming three-pointer from the right quartercourt and RP-Selecta escaped with a 94-91 thriller over the Melbourne Tigers in the last of their two-game exhibition series at the Araneta Coliseum last night.

National coach Jong Uichico was thankful to the Tigers for coming over, saying he got some significant insights and his team learned valuable lessons that could help in their campaign in the Asian Games a month from now.

Uichico called the series a "screw-tightening" experience and said he hopes they can arrange some more games versus international teams so they can refine their tools for the Asiad joust.

"The structure is already there but we still need to refine our game. And you can’t do that in practice," said Uichico. "You can say all the things you want to say in theory, pero makikita mo lang ang depekto nito sa laro. This series showed us the things we still need to fix."

Uichico, however, was convinced the Nationals have improved a lot from the time they went to Italy to play in a mini-tournament, to the time they played Chinese-Taipei also in a two-game series and from last Thursday when they suffered an 76-80 defeat at the hands of the Aussies.

"Coach Allan, coach Eric and myself had talks with coach Lindsay Gaze and we got lots of insights from him…why this? Why that? Marami kaming natutuhan sa kanya," said Uichico.

The players also said the series against the Aussies was a big learning experience.

Pointguard Olsen Racela said, "Ako lang malaki ang natutunan ko dito. I experienced here guarding and playing tall players. Maraming games na ganun ang mae-encounter ko sa Busan."

Racela also said the series against Chinese-Taipei and Melbourne helped them become flexible.

"Against Chinese-Taipei, we’re going to Asi (Taulava) because Asi is quicker than those of the big guys of Chinese-Taipei. Against Melbourne naman, we went to our small guys like Kenneth (Duremdes) and Jeffrey (Cariaso) dahil of course, lamang sila sa ilalim," explained Racela.

And Racela thought beating the Aussies last night could well boost their confidence tremendously going into Busan.

With the Tigers playing with less intensity this time, the Nationals made the most out of the situation, posting a 19-point lead at one point midway through the third quarter.

But when the Tigers put the pressure in the fourth quarter, the Nationals scrambled and needed Menk’s buzzer-beating trey to salvage the game.

The Tigers wiped out a six-point lead in the last 31.8 seconds on a layup by Stephen Hoare, a charity by David Smith and a triple by Lanard Copeland all inside 20 seconds.

"That’s one thing we saw here that we need to fix…endgame mistakes. Dapat ayusin namin ito. We can’t afford to commit those crucial mistakes at endgame in Busan," said Uichico.