Franco Atienza made the most of his PBA head coaching debut on Sunday night, piloting Converge FiberXers to a thrilling 113-111 overtime win over San Miguel Beermen in the PBA On Tour.
With head coach Aldin Ayo skipping the game due to a personal matter and first assistant McJour Luib suiting up as a back-up point guard for the injury-riddled FiberXers, Atienza -- a holdover from the now-defunct Alaska Aces backroom staff -- was thrust into the limelight against the PBA's winningest team.
He didn't disappoint, helping Converge overcome an early double-digit deficit and calling the right defensive play in the last seconds of overtime that led to Jerrick Balanza's game-winning layup with 1.9 seconds left.
With Ayo set to return to the sidelines on Wednesday, Atienza joked that he'll retire as a PBA head coach with a 100% winning record.
If that happens, he'll join his former boss in elite company.
"The other coach who's 100%, I think, is boss Fred (Uytengsu)," said Atienza, referring to the former Alaska team owner who took over the coaching reins of the team in the 1980s for one game.
Even though Ayo was absent, Atienza said the head coach made his presence felt.
"For sure, he was monitoring us," he clarified. "During the game, during halftime, he was with the team.
"It just so happens that he can't be here physically. But he's on top of everything."
Atienza was quick to deflect the credit for the stirring win as merely carrying out the team's system, stating: "It's a group effort. First of all, this is still coach Aldin's team.
"Whatever you saw here, it's his system. We just executed it. We been doing this for less than one year, and the players have been putting in the work in practice.
"We just executed our schemes. You saw the 'mayhem' -- we executed that. We picked the pieces up together. Credit to the players, credit to our coaching staff.
"It's not the same San Miguel team. But again, we want to do what we know and we want to improve on what we know and what we do best, which is defense."
While all that may be true, it was Atienza's correct call on a defensive play that set up the win.
With the Beermen in possession with 14 seconds left and the score tied at 111, he guessed correctly what SMB would do next.
"It's really just making plays down the stretch," said point guard Alec Stockton, who came up with a big steal off Mo Tautuaa and assist to Balanza.
"Coach Franco told us if ever Mo gets the ball down low, because that's their advantage, try to get a steal. Fortunately, we got a steal, we got it down the stretch and Jerrick got the layup."
Atienza, though, still gave credit to the system.
"Basketball is putting the ball into the hoop," he added. "So we just have to do the other thing, which is stopping them from putting it into the hoop.
"With the system that we have, coach Aldin's team is known to be tough on defense. And it's just nice that we won that game on defense."
It was a much-needed win for the FiberXers, who had lost three of their first four games on the tour.
"Whatever game we play, if we have a choice for overtime in a close game, we always choose overtime because that's where you learn," Atienza added, on the team's need for a game like this to test their composure.
"Whatever we do in practice, we cannot replicate the pressure of an overtime game against a champion team like San Miguel. And we want that learning.
"We want to get something out of this. And we want our young team to benefit from the pressure and defending end games like this.
"And I think we passed the test for this game. We will move forward and continue improving for the coming conference."
Franco Atienza has PBA head coaching debut to savor as Converge FiberXers sees off San Miguel Beermen - ESPN - ESPN
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