Big Chill escapes Cafe France

THE BIG CHILL SUPERCHARGERS scrapped past the Café France Bakers, 74-73, thanks to a buzzer-beating putback by Allan Santos in the PBA D-League Foundation Cup yesterday at the Ynares Sports Arena in Pasig City.

The Super Chargers turned their fortunes around in the final 1.3 seconds with Santos barely beating that game clock after Charles Jensen missed on two attempts at point blank.

The Bakers were poised to nab the win as they led by as many as 12 points and even held a 73-72 lead with just 2.4 clicks left on the clock.

But they couldn’t hold on to it as Josan Nimes played goat. The 6-foot-3 forward threw away two crucial plays in the closing seconds, the last one when he opted to dribble the remaining time and lost the ball at baseline instead on just holding on to it until time expired.

Alex Mallari scored 16 points, Jewel Ponferada had 12 and Mac Montilla added 11 for the Super Chargers, who shot poorly and struggled against Café France’s zone defense.

Jens Knuttel talled 18 points and had seven assists while Michael Parala contributed 17 and 12 rebounds as Café France got big games from its reserves.

Café France committed 25 tunrovers, eight in the fourth quarter. /Correspondent Jonas Panerio