JERICHO Cruz shook the hands of LA Tenorio as the veteran guard was about to inbound the ball in Barangay Ginebra's crucial play in the final 10 seconds of Game 6.
“Kuya kaya pa, a,” said the San Miguel veteran guard, obviously amazed at how Tenorio had brought the Kings back from nine points down in the fourth quarter to just a heartbeat of the lead at 85-87.
The 40-year-old Tenorio made those words sound prophetic.
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Eight seconds later, the long-time Ginebra team captain buried a clutch three over Cruz, who scampered to get back on his man after sagging a bit to help out of a driving Scottie Thompson, to give the Kings a dramatic 88-87 win that forged a do-or-die game for a finals berth in the PBA Philippine Cup.
Tenorio scored all of his 11 points in that fateful fourth period, making the difference for the Kings the moment he was brought in by coach Tim Cone to replace RJ Abarrientos with 8:34 to play and Ginebra trailing by seven after a huge San Miguel run.
The concurrent Gilas Youth coach ended up shooting 4-of-5 including a perfect 3-of-3 from the three-point line. He also grabbed two rebounds, and issued two assists in the win that leveled the best-of-seven series at 3-3.
“Kaya pa,” said Tenorio when asked by SPIN.ph about that inbound exchange with Cruz.
“Every time I step on the court, I try to make something happen as a leader of the team,” he added later. "I really need to be on point on everything, it doesn’t matter if it is two minutes, three minutes, one minute, I have to be a role model to them just like for this game.”
Tonight he truly was.
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