Oftana brushes off late miscue

Calvin Oftana moved on from his late-game miss as TNT Tropang 5G suffered a heartbreaking 100-102 loss to Barangay Ginebra in Game 1 of the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Commissioner’s Cup Finals at the Smart Araneta Coliseum last Wednesday.

Oftana said that while he believes he was fouled by Kings import Justin Brownlee in the final play of the game, he acknowledged that the play could have gone either way with only 0.6 seconds remaining on the clock.

Tropang 5G head coach Chot Reyes did not hide his frustration as he made a quick exit from the Big Dome.

“You all saw what happened. The referees didn’t make the call,” Reyes said.

But for Oftana, the game could have gone either way as they regretted falling behind by as much as 18 points early in the third quarter.

“I know I was fouled, but there was only 0.6 seconds left. It really happened in the blink of an eye,” said Oftana, who scored 12 points for TNT.

“It happens. In late-game calls, you’d usually look back on what happened in the first half. We had a lot of miscues and they (the Kings) made their shots.”

Had Brownlee been called for a foul, Oftana would have had the chance to send the game into overtime as he would have been awarded two free throws.

Even Brownlee, who had 23 points for the Kings, admitted he had a hard time guarding Oftana in the final play.

“It was a tough play to defend, so I just kept my hands up and tried not to foul,” Brownlee said.

Instead of dwelling on what could have been, Oftana chose to move on and focus on bouncing back in Game 2 on Friday at 7:30 p.m. at the same venue.