Jared Vento knocked down the game-winning basket to lift Immaculada Concepcion College to a nail-biting 80-79 win over Olivarez College in Game 1 of their National Capital Region Athletic Association men’s basketball tournament best-of-three final series recently at the Polytechnic University of the Philippines gymnasium.
‘The first time Olivarez beat this team, I wasn’t there yet with the squad but it was a similar situation.’
Vento was at the right place and at the right time to pick up the loose ball off a broken play for the game-winner that put the Blue Hawks one win away from clinching their first ever NCRAA title.
The Blue Hawks, actually, appeared headed for the victory and stop the 13-game winning streak of the Sealions when Joshua Gallano nailed the go-ahead jumper to give Olivarez a 79-78 lead in the final six seconds.
ICC coach Ogie Gumatay sued for time and designed an alley-oop play for Jake Gaspay, who failed to catch the lob pass.
Iverson Aquiatan, who was able to secure possession, tried to bounce the ball off the foot of Gaspay, but Vento was there to pick it up and deliver a banked shot with 1.3 seconds left in the game.
Off a time out, Olivarez mapped out a play and went for a similar alley-oop play for Edmund de la Cruz.
But De la Cruz botched the play, allowing ICC to escape with the victory.
“The players responded to my instructions, we got the right breaks needed and we won. The players deserved it because they really worked hard for this,” said Gumatay, who took over the coaching reins midway into the eliminations.
“The first time Olivarez beat this team, I wasn’t there yet with the squad but it was a similar situation. ICC could have won, but Olivarez bounced back strong. Game 1 was really close and we expected it, but we expect them to bounce back strong in Game 2.”
Game 2 will be played at the PUP Gym in Sta. Mesa at 11:30 a.m. right after the winner-take-all championship showdown between host school PUP and Centro Escolar University in the women’s division at 10 a.m.
Earlier, Philippine Merchant Marine School defeated PATTS College of Aeronautics, 70-61, while La Salle-Dasmariñas clobbered PMMS in the women’s side, 76-60, to bag the third-place trophies.
