The Jose Rizal University (JRU) Heavy Bombers escaped with a 114-112 double-overtime victory over the Arellano University Chiefs in a wild game in the 91st NCAA men’s basketball tournament yesterday at the Arena in San Juan City.
The Chiefs put the game under protest after the referees wrongly credited a two-pointer by JRU guard Tey Teodoro as a three pointer, leading to a bizarre finish that saw Arellano force a foul and give two free-throws to the Bombers, under the belief that they were still down by a point.
JRU was in front, 110-109, when Teodoro hit a jumper that was ruled a triple by the officials, thus giving the Bombers a 113-109 lead.
After Arellano guard Jio Jalalon countered with a triple of his own with six seconds remaining to make it 112-113, the Chiefs fouled JRU’s Gio Lasquety to stop the clock with 1.2 seconds left.
But a video review later revealed that the supposed three was just a two, forcing the officials to change the score to 112-all.
Although the officials made the correct call with regards to the score, they were not able to recall the foul on Lasquety, who went on to make the game-winning free throws.
The two teams are now tied for third place with identical 6-4 (win-loss) records.
Paolo Pontejos had a career-high 32 points and eight assists to lead JRU while Abdel Poutouchi had 21 points and 17 boards. The loss spoiled the incredible game of Cagayan de Oro-native Jiovani Jalalon, who had 36 points and 16 assists.