MIGS outlasts C&R/NRG in OT

MIGS survived its toughest test so far in the Inaugural 2008 PILCOWA-San Miguel Beer Basketball League, pulling off a pulsating 125-122 overtime win over C&R Distributor/NRG Thursday night at the CIC Centre Basketball Court in Garapan.

Bonbon Cadagat, Bart Demapan, and Jeremy Tamayo made crucial baskets to lift MIGS to a three-point win and keep their team’s perfect record intact after four games.

Cadagat’s lean-in triple in the last seven seconds of the fourth quarter sent the game into overtime.

Cadagat made the game-tying basket after Jun Estolas committed an error.

Estolas picked up the loose ball off a Sonny Lerio missed triple and was slightly bumped by a MIGS defender. Estolas was expecting a foul will be called against MIGS, so he held on to the ball and took extra steps, committing a traveling violation.

MIGS regained possession with Jun Pantaleon inbounding the ball and passing it to Cadagat, who used Kae Bernardo’s screen to escape his defenders and pulled up for a big triple.

Estolas tried to redeem himself, as he threw a triple from the backcourt, but the shot was way off the mark, sending the game into overtime.

Neither team led by more than four points in the extra period and the match was tied last, 121-all, after Estolas split his free throws, with 50 seconds remaining on the clock.

Demapan, whose two previous attempts were swatted away by C&R defenders, gave MIGS the lead, 123-121, after he grabbed an offensive rebound off a Cadagat miss, had a quick turn from the right baseline toward the middle, and made the basket, with 31 seconds remaining in the game.

Estolas had a chance to tie the game when he was fouled on his way to a layup. But Estolas continued to struggle from the 15-foot line, splitting his charities anew and allowing MIGS to keep the lead, 123-122, with 27 seconds left in the extension period.

C&R played pressured defense in the ensuing play forcing Tamayo to take a hurried shot and miss. But MIGS got the ball back when Errol Peredo lost the ball to the left sideline near C&R’s bench as he was trapped by two defenders.

C&R coach Marvin Deocares sued for time to set up a defensive play, which resulted to C&R giving up a foul away from the ball with MIGS getting ready for an inbound.

The game was halted as both teams were confused on the penalty for Peredo’s foul on Tamayo.

In FIBA rules, a foul away from the ball gives the offensive team two technical free throws and possession.

But the league’s ground rules considered the said foul as a personal foul, thus awarding only two free throws to the offensive team.

There was also confusion on the player making two trips to the line with Tamayo moving away from the foul line while MIGS was trying to put either Cadagat or White Capalad to the free throw area.

Finally, Tamayo went to the foul line and cast off any doubts about his free throw shooting when he made a pair of charities with the ball hitting nothing but the bottom of the net on both occasions.

Tamayo’s two charities widened MIGS’s lead to three, 125-122, with seven seconds remaining in the game.

Peredo tried to redeem himself from his previous error when he attempted a game-tying triple from the right sideline, but muffed the shot. Estolas claimed the offensive board, but he ran out of time trying to move back beyond the arc to pull up another trey, helping MIGS to keep its clean slate.

The loss to MIGS put John Artates and Melvin Capalad’s efforts into waste. Artates made back-to-back triples in the last minute of the match to put C&R in the lead, 108-107, while Capalad canned two pressure-packed free throws to increase the lead to three, 110-107, before Cadagat drilled the game-tying trey.

MIGS won despite losing four key players due to five fouls. Aba Tagle and Banjo Basilla fouled out in the fourth quarter, while Bernardo joined them in the showers midway in the extension period. Lerio also fouled out in the last minute of overtime. Tamayo and Demapan took the place of Lerio and Bernardo and lifted MIGS to its first close win.

MIGS had a 30-point winning margin average in its first three wins.

Cadagat paced MIGS with his 31 points, his third 30-point plus performance in the league. The impressive MIGS guard added five rebounds and nine assists, and was perfect from the free throw line in the fourth period, hitting 4-for-4 to keep his team afloat in that canto.

C&R could have won the game in regulation, but it went 9-for-15 from the foul line with Estolas going 1-for-4 in the fourth period and Peredo missing his last two charities.

MIGS was spotless in the fourth, firing 9-for-9.

MIGS 125 – Cadagat 31, Lerio 29, Bernardo 21, Basila 12, Pantaleon 10, Capalad 8, Tamayo 4, Demapan 4.

C&R/NRD 122 – Cruz 24, Estolas 24, Peredo 22, Capalad 18, Artates 11, Camacho 9, Gamboa 7, Chan 5, Villacrusis 2.

Scoring by quarters: 25-23, 48-52, 78-74, 110-110, 125-122 (OT).