PBA: Stephen Holt on sealing Ginebra's 'miraculous' escape: 'That's true NSD spirit'

Stephen Holt’s sweet delivery in the final moments carried Barangay Ginebra to victory over Converge and into the PBA Season 50 Philippine Cup semifinals.

But up until that clutch triple at the buzzer, the Filipino-American guard was far from firing on all cylinders.

Holt was shooting just 1-of-7 from the rainbow country prior to the buzzer-beating trey, which had head coach Tim Cone designing the final play for RJ Abarrientos.

Holt also committed a crucial foul on super rookie Juan Gomez de Liaño that allowed the latter to complete a three-point play and bring the FiberXers to an 84-83 cushion late in the fourth period.

Overtime, however, belonged to Holt. 

He started by sinking a three-point play to tie it at 89-all, then delivered a key assist for Troy Rosario’s triple that pulled them to within one, 96-97, with 20 seconds left to play.

Holt capped off the thrilling finish with a dagger from the top of the key off an Abarrientos’ setup, completing a narrow 99-98 OT escape for Ginebra.

The former top overall pick admitted that, despite his earlier misses, his clutch triple probably stands as one of the biggest shots of his career.

"That's probably one of the bigger shots in my career. It's pretty clear I was struggling on both ends of the floor but again, I just love my guys. They just continued to give me confidence and when I had my moment, I knew I had to step up," Holt said.

"The play was designed obviously for RJ and I wanted to give him a good look, but it didn't work out."

Holt's heroics embodied the team's battlecry the entire game.

Sparkplug Christian David had to head back to the locker room after injuring his shoulder late in the fourth, while veterans Scottie Thompson and Japeth Aguilar later fouled out of the match.

That left Ginebra with a thin lineup against a young and gutsy Converge team. But the fight in them wasn't lost. 

"That team, Converge, they came to play with so much heart tonight," Cone said.

"We lost Scottie to foul out, we lost Japeth to foul out, we recovered from that four-point shot that de Liaño hit, and still making that big shot in the end felt miraculous to me."

Holt believes the win over Converge shows that Ginebra is finally hitting its stride, even after a slow conference start that set up a quarterfinal clash with twice-to-beat Converge.

"I was struggling the whole game but I just wanted to step up for my team because I feel like we deserve this," Holt added.

"We just showed so much heart with people fouling out, [the game] going into overtime, and playing extended minutes. That's true NSD (never say die) spirit."

—JMB, GMA Integrated News