TanHoldings outlasts Joeten in OT

TanHoldings’ Douglas Schmidt drives against Joeten’s Kelvin Fitial during the fourth quarter of their game in the JEM/Mobil caging last Monday at the Gillette Multipurpose Gymnasium. (Roselyn B. Monroyo)

TanHoldings survived a scare from Joeten, pulling off an 89-84 overtime win in the second game in the JEM Company Ltd./Mobil Customer Appreciation Basketball League last Monday night at the Gillette Multipurpose Gymnasium.

Douglas Schmidt scored all but one of TanHoldings’ 13 points in the extension period to lift his team to its seventh win in as many games. Joeten, which forced overtime after Kelvin Fitial buried a triple in the closing seconds of regulation, had its five-game winning streak snapped and finished Pool A with a 5-2 record for second place behind TanHoldings.

Schmidt drilled 10 of his 12 markers in the extra quarter in consecutive fashion, capping his string points with a banked triple to give TanHoldings enough cushion, 86-78, with under two minutes left in overtime. The trey was Schmidt’s second in a row, while he earlier made two free throws to open TanHoldings’ scoring in the extension and forced the last deadlock in the battle for first place in Pool A.

Schmidt saved the day for TanHoldings after his team bungled a double-digit lead in the first quarter, while Joeten patiently fought back and nearly stole the victory in the highly intense match that saw the ejection of Lerio Pagarao and Sid Quan.

The two players were ordered out of the playing court for second motion at the 4:56 mark of the fourth canto with TanHoldings ahead, 69-65. The incident stemmed from the hard foul called on TanHoldings’ Pagarao against Quan, who was underneath the basket and made the shot, and fell on the floor. When he got up, Quan pushed Pagarao and the latter appeared to be charging at the former but was pacified by Kelvin Fitial. Soon, players from both benches entered the court, but the referees quickly stepped in and prevented the confrontation from escalating.

When tension subsided, Pagarao and Quan were thrown out of the game, while Fitial stayed, as the referees said the latter was just trying to bear hug the former and not choke him, as TanHoldings players and supporters contended.

Chris Rogolifoi replaced Quan and took the bonus shot, but missed, however TanHoldings’ Bart Demapan dropped the ball after getting the rebound, while Alex Lauron picked it up for a putback to tie the match, 67-all.

The 4-point swing turned into a short 8-3 spurt for Joeten with Kelvin Fitial finishing the rally with a fastbreak layup after picking Esdrelon’s pocket to put his team on top, 71-70. Joeten went on to increase the lead to 3, 73-70, after Demapan missed a pair of charities while Keoni Chariton converted a baseline drive, making up for an earlier traveling violation.

A split free throw from Schmidt in the ensuing play moved TanHoldings within two and the eventual undefeated team went on to regain the upper hand after Joeten became careless with its passes at the under one-minute mark of regulation.

Lauron’s inbound pass to Fitial was intercepted by Esdrelon, who went straight to the basket to tie the match. Another Lauron pass was caught by the long arms of Schmidt, who stretched for the layup and put TanHoldings on top, 75-73. Schmidt earlier got away with a fastbreak shot off Joeten’s first error in the last two minutes of the fourth quarter, but the basket was nullified as Jarett Matsutaro was called for an illegal screen.

Schmidt made up for the voided basket with 29.2 seconds left and TanHoldings kept the shaky lead when Fitial went 0-for-2 from the foul line on the other end with his first shot too strong and the second hitting nothing but air.

TanHoldings then made it a 3-point game when Schmidt was fouled in the ensuing play and nailed his first free throw attempt, 14.6 seconds left in the fourth canto. With no timeouts left, Joeten went for the quick inbound and Chariton swung the ball to Fitial on the left key for the game-tying triple, 5.2 ticks remaining in regulation.

TanHoldings sued for time, hoping to have the last say, but failed to put up a shot on time with Schmidt still far away from the basket and hounded by Fitial and Chariton after getting the inbound pass from Esdrelon. Schmidt was forced to kick the ball out to Matsutaro at the right key and the former released the missed shot after the fourth quarter buzzer had already sounded, sending the game into overtime.

Joeten then scored the first basket in the extension off Chariton’s layup before Schmidt took over and finished off their foe to give TanHoldings the sweep.

Meanwhile, Ariel Jinang canned a game-tying triple, while Gerald Rivera scored D&Q/CTSI’s last 4 points to lift their team to a 69-64 victory against Star Water.

It was a come-from-behind win for D&Q/CTSI, which faced a double-digit deficit at the end of the first period, 11-21. D&Q/CTSI worked its way back into the game in the second and third quarters and its persistence paid dividends in the fourth canto, thanks to its balance scoring in the payoff period and Jinang and Rivera’s clutch baskets.

D&Q/CTSI finished Pool B with a 3-4 record for fifth place in the team standings, while Star Water fell to a 2-4 slate and has one more game left.

First Game
D&Q/CTSI 69 – Rivera 16, Jinang 13, Fujihira 11, Santos 9, Tenepere 7, Asaivao 5, Rabago 2, De La Torre 2, Benavente 2.

Star Water 65 – Santos 14, Dizon 12, Brel 11, Gallardo 11, Itaas 9, Ombal 8.

Scoring by quarters: 11-21, 32-36, 49-52, 69-65.

Second Game
TanHoldings 89 – Schmidt 49, Esdrelon 13, Demapan 12, Pagarao 9, Nonato 4, Matsutaro 2.

Joeten 84 – Lauron 21, Fitial 16, Chariton 14, Devero 11, Quan 10, Rogolifoi 8, Sambile 4.

Scoring by quarters: 26-14, 41-36, 64-59, 76-76, 89-84 (OT).