CEBUANO guard Nic Cabañero showed nerves of steel as he sank a floater from the baseline right before the buzzer to give the University of Santo Tomas Growling Tigers a scintillating 76-75 win over the National University Bulldogs in the Filoil EcoOil 17th ECJ Preseason Cup on May 22, 2024 at the Filoil EcoOil Centre in San Juan.
Cabañero finished with 19 points—including UST’s last four—to tow his squad to the victory.
Down three 75-72 with only 17 seconds left, Cabañero quickly scored to trim the deficit to one. NU’s Tebol Garcia had a chance to give his team more cushion but missed two free throws. Cabañero then dribbled the length of the floor and got to the baseline where he shot a looping floater over the outstretched arms of fellow Cebuano, Patrick Yu. After what seemed like an eternity, the ball found nothing but the bottom of the net to give UST the win.
“Tine-test namin yung team namin kung hanggang saan kami pupunta and, at the same time, yung mga players nagde-deliver. Yung breaks of the game napunta sa amin against NU, and ang importante, a win is a win kahit one point lang yan,” said UST head coach Pido Jarencio.
Hinda Tounkara and former Ateneo de Cebu big man Christian Manaytay contributed 18 and 15 markers, respectively.
Mo Diassana and Reinhard Jumamoy wound up with 17 and 15 points, respectively, for the now 0-2 Bulldogs. / JNP