Giants, Whoppers live for double sudden death

MANILA, Philippines – Marquin Chandler nailed two charities with 1.2 seconds left to play and Purefoods survived Rain or Shine’s huge comeback from a 24-point deficit, scoring an 84-82 nail-biter to force a sudden death in their Motolite PBA Fiesta Conference quarterfinals showdown at the Araneta Coliseum last night.

Burger King likewise set a do-or-die game with Sta. Lucia as the Whoppers, drawing tremendous support from their second-stringers, drubbed the Realtors, 94-81, in the second game.

Egay Billones and Mark Yee combined for 36 points coming off the bench as the Whoppers got back at the Realtors, keeping their chance for a return stint in the Fiesta Conference finale.

The Elasto Painters had a chance to send the game into overtime but Rob Wainwright missed a fall-away shot from 18 feet at the buzzer, allowing the Giants to salvage the game and live to fight another game in the season-ending tourney.

“I couldn’t forgive myself had we lost the game,” said Purefoods coach Ryan Gregorio.

“It’s an ugly win but the important thing is that after 48 minutes, we’re up. That’s the essence of the game,” Gregorio added.

Avoiding a knockout blow, the Giants instead arranged a do-or-die setto with the Elasto Painters on June 14. The tourney takes a break to give way to the RP team’s participation in the SEABA championship in Medan, Indonesia.

“This team has always been a tough match-up for us because we have no man who can single-handedly defend against Jai Lewis. It would take us a lot of hard work on top of skills and talent to win this series,” said Gregorio.

Trailing from the start, the Elasto Painters caught up with the Giants for the first time at 82-all on a low-post play by Lewis off Don Allado with time down to 21.6 seconds.

With a foul to boot from Allado, Lewis had a chance to push Rain or Shine ahead but missed the accompanying free throw.

With that crucial break, the Giants called a timeout and worked out a play where Chandler first dribbled the time away before attacking the basket in the closing seconds.

Chandler missed the shot but drew a foul from Lewis, giving him the chance to shoot the winning points from the stripe.