ALASKA star Calvin Abueva was in no mood to grant interviews at the end of the Aces' campaign in the 2017 PBA Commissioner's Cup, which is totally understandable.
Abueva reset his career-high in scoring with 31 points, grabbed 13 rebounds, issued three assists and had one steal in 35 minutes of play. Aside from that, he hit the difficult running jumper that put the Aces up, 104-103, with 21 seconds left in the knockout game against GlobalPort.
His yeoman job, however, went for naught as Gilas Pilipinas teammate Terrence Romeo hit the clutch three-pointer that carried GlobalPort to a 107-106 win - and a place in the playoffs as the eighth and last quarterfinalist.
“Wala, sarado ang bibig ko,” said Abueva while on his way out of the Alaska locker room at the Mall of Asia Arena.
[See Pumaren on Romeo dagger: 'It takes one great player to be willing to take that shot']
The undersized forward had all the reasons to be disappointed. Alaska failed to make the playoffs for the first time in nine conferences under Alex Compton after an eighth successive loss.
He was also obviously not happy with some of the referees' decisions late in the match, including a non-call on his jumper in the final seconds.
But he'd rather keep his mouth shut.
When pressed for comment, he said, “Pag nagsalita ako ba ma-fine lang ako.”
‘The Beast’ then left the venue and never looked back.
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