WITH the clock down to just five seconds, and his University of the Philippines Maroons on the brink of defeat, rising Cebuano star Paul Desiderio took a look at the maroon-clad gallery, each of whom sported a worried look and vowed to turn all those frowns upside down.
Down 71-73, Desiderio called his own number in the huddle, stepped onto the floor and delivered a booming three-pointer from the right wing with just 1.1 seconds that gave the Maroons a pulsating, 74-73 victory over the UST Tigers.
On Monday morning, the Liloan native spoke of what transpired just before his heroics.
“When I saw the crowd, they were dismayed since we were about to lose the game. That’s why it came to my mind that as long as we can do it, we still had a chance to win,” said the one-time Cesafi juniors MVP.
Asked about his oozing-with-confidence statement “Atin ‘to! Papasok ‘to!” in the huddle, Desiderio remarked that as team captain, he had to have complete faith in himself and in the team to pull off miracle wins such as the one on Sunday.
“As a captain, I need to believe that we can win games and I will be the last one to surrender,” boldly said by the former University of the Visayas Baby Lancer.
With the victory’s euphoria now settling down, Desiderio admitted that they still had a lot to work on if they are to make waves this season. First on the agenda is their abysmal shooting clip.
Between him and fellow UV product Jun Manzo, they combined to miss 25 of their 34 attempts from the floor. Desiderio believes that they will get better as the season progresses.
“Since it was the first game, of course everyone was out of control as expected. We will be adjusting in the next games especially with our shooting.”