PAGADIAN, ZAMBOANGA DEL SUR — Rhaffy Octobre is the perfect stretch-four for Zamboanga Sibugay in the Chooks-to-Go Pilipinas VisMin Super Cup Mindanao Challenge.
At 6-foot-4, Octobre can play in the paint but is also a marksman from deep.
He proved the latter in the biggest of ways last Wednesday during the Anak Mindanao Warriors’ 73-64 Finals Game One conquest of BYB Kapatagan at the Pagadian City Gymnasium here.
After trailing by an extended period of time, KD Ariar finally gave the Buffalos a two-point lead after making two free throws that capped eight unanswered points from them with 4:37 left, 60-58.
Then Octobre fired back with a triple. Jonel Bonganciso then retaliated with a putback on the other end to reclaim the lead for Kapatagan, 62-61.
But that would be the last time the Buffalos would see the scoreline in their favor.
Octobre lit the fire on a game-deciding 12-2 blast with a booming top of the key trifecta before topping the run with a long-two with 44.1 seconds left, 73-62.
“Sinabi lang ni coach na find the open man so I reward myself na open ako so buti naman pumasok ‘yung mga tira ko,” said the pride of Padre Burgos, Southern Leyte.
And that was the exact thing head tactician Arnold Oliveros wanted to happen.
This as Octobre was gun-shy in the first half, attempting no shots at all.
“Noong first half walang pinapakita si Octobre. Buti pumutok siya noong fourth quarter kasi alam ko naman na kaya niyang magdeliver sa crucial,” Oliveros on Octobre, who finished with 11 points on 3-of-4 clip from deep, eight rebounds, two blocks, and a game-high plus-24.
Helping him get hot from the rainbow country was the warmup he had Tuesday night during the league’s All-Star game.
There, the University of Visayas standout shot the lights out with 15 points on a scorching 5-of-7 shooting from behind the arc.
“Malaking tulong ‘yung All-Star game kasi doon ko nakuha ‘yung kumpyansa ko sa tres.”
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