Mariano: I just made a wrong decision
University of Santo Tomas fell short in its bid to regain the UAAP men’s basketball crown and nobody among the Growling Tigers felt the heat more than power forward Aljon Mariano.
The fourth-year forward found himself in the eye of the storm following a 69-71 overtime defeat to the La Salle Green Archers in their winner-take-all match last Saturday before an overflowing MOA Arena crowd, no thanks to his sudden “disappearing act” in an epic best-of-three finals.
Considered one of the team’s vital cogs, Mariano endured a rough stint in his second straight finals appearance, averaging just 4.7 points on an atrocious 5-of-28 (17.9 percent) shooting from the field. In the rubber match, he only had four points–all from the charity stripe–and failed to make all of his eight attempts.
None among those missed chances proved bigger than his potentially game-winning jumper at the top of the key against La Salle defender Norbert Torres in regulation.
Off a timeout with 6.1 seconds left, the 6-foot-4 Mariano got the inbound pass from skipper Jeric Teng and–instead of giving the ball to Karim Abdul like what Coach Pido Jarencio instructed during the timeout–tried hard to save the day for UST with a step-back move against the taller Torres but saw his attempt bounced off the twice before rimming out as time expired.
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Mariano’s woes turned worse in the extra period. After La Salle’s ace Jeron Teng misfired the back-end of his free throws that kept UST ahead 69-68, the Tiger forward tracked down the leather at the baseline and, aware he only had little space to dribble, made an errant pass to teammate Kevin Ferrer, sending the leather back to the Archers with 26.7 ticks to play.
That eventually set the stage for Almond Vosotros’s clutch basket off a Jeron Teng feed exactly seven seconds after then the Tigers, collectively as cool as ice in an equally nail-biting 73-72 victory in the opener last Oct. 2, crumbled under duress.
Mariano, however, is not one to cry over spilled milk. “Ako naman nagdedesisyon sa mga ginagawa ko. Muntik na naman ma-shoot (his attempt in the regulation). Kung na-shoot ‘yun, iba na yung storya,” he said after emerging from the team’s dugout.
The UST Tiger also stressed he indeed has the confidence to make what would have been the biggest basket, saying: “OK naman ‘yung tira ko. Hindi lang talaga na-shoot.”
Man enough to admit, Mariano rued his wild pass to Ferrer. “Wrong decision lang. Mali lang ako,” he lamented.
