Hopson strikes again from afar

Terrafirma should’ve known better than to let Converge import Scotty Hopson get the ball while protecting a slim lead.

They seemed to have forgotten how he broke TNT’s heart weeks back.

As FiberXers head coach Franco Atienza would like to call it, lightning struck twice for his team with Hopson smiting a thunderous four-pointer once again to rescue Converge.

All the while basically, playing on one leg.

Hopson drained the game-winning quadruple with 2.5 seconds left in Converge’s 100-99 escape over the also-ran Dyip to boost its chances of securing a quarterfinal spot in Group A of the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Governors’ Cup on Saturday at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium.

“Coach Charles (Tiu) drew up the play for me. They all trust me to get in those positions to make a shot or at least take a shot. I was confident from the jump, obviously,” the 35-year-old said.

The FiberXers were bothered by health concerns on their reinforcement who sustained what started to be a pulled hip flexor that moved down to his quad.

Despite dealing with some pain, Atienza and the rest of Converge put their faith in Hopson with the game on the line.

“As soon as we called the play, I kinda just got in character, got in my mood and block everything out,” Hopson said.

Receiving the ball from BJ Andrade from the sideline inbound, Hopson dribbled to his right to get a good look at the basket before pulling up to knock the go-ahead 27-footer over the outstretched hands of Kevin Ferrer.

“When he took that shot, I assure you, he didn’t feel any pain. He had good mechanics. It was a good attempt for him. And he believed in it even before he took that shot, that he would make that shot,” Atienza said.

Converge improved to a 4-4 win-loss card to remain in the thick of the battle for the top four in the group eliminations.

Hopson, who finished with 18 points, proved once again how lethal he is even at crunch time.

He did the same thing back on 27 August when Converge hacked out a 96-95 upset of the defending champion Tropang Giga — their lone loss so far in the import-laden conference.

“It’s nice when you have a weapon like that, you have to use it. We have to take chances. As you can see, it’s a grind-out game. We don’t know our chances when it goes into overtime. It’s just nice that the four-point is there, and Scotty Hopson is there,” Atienza said.

“So, the lightning struck twice for us.”