BUREAU of Customs Transformers’ Gherome Ejercito saved the day for the powerhouse team Sunday night at UNTV Cup elimination round at the Pasig City Sports Center.
The former MBA and PBA player threw a miracle three- point shot from midcourt right at the final buzzer as BOC kept its slate intact at 3-0 following a 93-92 win over the House of Representative Solons.
UNTV Cup, which is now on its 5th season, is giving away more than P8 million in total prizes to the chosen charities of all 13 participating government teams.
With 40 seconds left, BOC playing coach Kenneth Duremdes unleashed a triple that cut the Solons’ lead to one, 91-90. Then point guard Von Ignacio forced a turnover on Egay Billones to regain the possession for BOC.
But Ignacio missed on a drive and Francis Adriano was fouled on the rebound with 3.6 seconds left. Adriano made his first freebie for a 92-90 HOR lead, and missed the second, with the rebound being secured by Ejercito, who dashed to their homecourt and threw the winning triple from midcourt as time expired.
Ejercito, who was adjudged Player of the Game with Duremdes, finished with 15 points on 6 of 12 shooting, to go with four rebounds, an assist, a steal.
Ejercito’s heroics overcame the season high 45 markers registered by the Solons’ reinforcement pointguard Billones.
Meanwhile, the defending champion AFP Cavaliers absorbed their first loss of the season as they were stopped by BFP Firefighters, 78-74.
Gilbert Malabanan’s jumper put BFP within one, 74-73 with 1:26 remaining. Jonathan Egea’s layup off Marlon Adolfo’s steal gave the upperhand to Firefighters, 75-74 with 1:11 remaining.
With 34 seconds left, Adolfo was able to convert on a teardrop off a feed from Malabanan as BFP led by three, 77-74.
Jeffrey Quiambao, Alvin Zuniga and Boyet Bautista each try to convert a triple but failed as Malabanan’s split freethrows settled the final score 78-74 an upset win for BFP to improve to 2-0 slate and gave AFP its first loss in three games.
Malabanan was again chosen as the best player of the game for second straight time finishing with 19 points, eight of nine from the field, eight boards, four assists and two steals and together with team mate Kurt Amores anchored the big man presence of BFP against the multiple centers and wide bodied Cavaliers.
Adolfo and Amores combined for 29 markers and 11 boards as BFP is now regarded as one of the teams to beat as they were able to stop the most dominating team in the league.
In the other match, Malacanang Kamao kept their winning run and improved to 2-0 as they walloped Senate Defenders 82-54.
Visnu Das Javier led Kamao with 14 points and four of seven from beyond the arc to further dim the chance of Senate to advance to the second round eliminations as the Defenders suffered their third straight loss in as many games.