LIMPING and all, Platinum Karaoke fought its guts out to beat Cavitex for the Leg 5 plum of the PBA 3×3 Third Conference, 17-15 in overtime, yesterday at Robinsons Las Piñas.
Yves Sazon drilled both the OT-forcing deuce and the winning two-ball as Platinum completed its fightback from 14-9 down and pulled it off despite Nico Salva playing through ankle sprain and TH Tumalip overcoming exhaustion.
The gutsy performance of Messrs. Sazon, Salva, Tumalip and Brandon Bates lifted Platinum to its first victory since topping the fourth leg of the preceding Second Conference.
As it stopped the back-to-back bid of its opponents, Platinum carved its name as the fifth different leg winner of the season-ending meet after San Miguel Beer, TnT, Barangay Ginebra and the Braves themselves.
“It was a no-tomorrow game so we just left it all out on the floor,” said Mr. Bates, whose team bucked tremendous adversity on the way to the top plum and P100,000 prize.
Mr. Salva sprained his ankle during their 21-18 semifinal verdict over TNT as Mr. Tumalip suffered fatigue postgame and needed to be given supplemental oxygen prior to the finale.
Mr. Sazon dropped eight points while Mr. Tumalip added four, Mr. Bates three and Mr. Salva two in the clincher.
Cavitex’s Jorey Napoles (six), Bong Galanza (five), Dominick Fajardo (three) and Tzaddy Rangel (one) settled for runner up honors worth P50,000, doomed by their failure to close out Platinum.
Meanwhile, the Tropang Giga banked on the winning layup of Samboy de Leon to turn back Meralco, 21-20, for third place and P30,000. — Olmin Leyba