NO one from Adamson wanted its campaign in UAAP Season 81 to end this way: short of a finals appearance and exiting at the Final Four stage for the third straight year.
Least of all Jerrick Ahanmisi, who didn't even have the chance to finish the game for the Soaring Falcons after limping off with cramps less than a minute left in the game.
"Bad timing. Just bad timing," rued the sweet-shooting guard after the twice-to-best Falcons lost in overtime, 89-87, in the do-or-die game against the University of the Philippines Maroons.
Ahanmisi knew he had to bounce back from a bad shooting night in the Game One loss to the Maroons. He still struggled to find his range on a 6-of-19 clip but finished with 20 points on top of three rebounds.
"It was just not to play as bad as the first game I did, to make sure that we didn’t go 1-for-22 like we did the first game," he said.
But Ahanmisi's stint came to an abrupt end as he went down with cramps with 58.2 seconds remaining in overtime after going for a drive, forcing him to watch the rest of the game from the bench.
Without their 24-year-old leader, Adamson crumbled under pressure as Paul Desiderio hit the game's last five points to lead the Maroons to their first finals appearance in 32 years.
Helpless and defeated, Ahanmisi stood silent as tears rolled down his face as another year ended without a championship.
"We lost. There’s nothing I can really say. People were just speechless, didn’t have anything to say really," he said. "Paul hit the shot and that’s it. We lost."
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