RAIN OR SHINE HALTS PETRON IN OT
With a blue-collar work, Rain or Shine succeeded on where seven ball clubs failed versus Petron Blaze.
The Elasto Painters grinded it out to overcome a shaky start and the towering presence of Junmar Fajardo as they outfought the Boosters, 99-95, in overtime in the PLDT My-DSL PBA Philippine Cup at the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City Saturday night.
Slowly fighting back from an early 15-point deficit then staying unrelenting in the crunch, the E-Painters gave themselves an advanced Christmas gift with this king-sized triumph over the previously unbeaten Petron team.
Gritty efforts by Jervy Cruz, Gabe Norwood, JR Quinahan and Paul Lee had Rain or Shine stopping the Petron rampage and allowing the Barangay Ginebra Kings to catch up with the Boosters on top at 7-1.
Cruz, a former UAAP MVP awardee, matched his career high 23 points and also got 12 rebounds while Quinahan had his own double-double with 11 markers and 10 boards as the Elasto Painters jacked up their stock at fourth place with a fifth win against three losses.
Lee and Norwood also made impact as they combined for 25 points in the fourth quarter and in the extra period.
With a helping defense, the E-Painters cut down to size the 6-foot-10 Fajardo.
“We just had to grind it out. We played a bad first half but made up for it in the second half,” said Rain or Shine coach Yeng Guiao.
“Petron is such a good team we needed extra effort to beat them,” Guiao also said. “We lost by 17 rebounds last time to Talk n Text. We promised not to do the same, and our rebounding tonight was also a big key.”
Though shorter in almost all individual matchups, the Elasto Painters outrebounded the Boosters, 66-61.
Fajardo, the league rebounding leader with an average of 17.4 before this game, was limited to 16 as he fouled out with 4:01 left to play.
With Fajardo already helpless on the bench, the E-Painters pressed harder and continued to outwork the Boosters.
The Elasto Painters scored the first five points in OT and held on to the lead to the finish.
After falling behind by 15, the E-Painters managed to catch up and surged ahead only with seven minutes left to play on two free throws and a jumper by Cruz.
Then the two teams battled toe-to-toe until the game went into OT at 87.
The Boosters started with a 20-7 salvo then led by 15 at 51-36 before taking the half at 51-38.
Arwind Santos and Fajardo asserted themselves early with the former coming through with 12 points and the latter getting 10 points and the same number of rebounds in the first 24 minutes of play.
The whole Petron team also put up a defense that worked, holding Rain or Shine down to 30-percent field shooting in the opening half.
The Boosters, on the other hand, went 4-of-9 (44.4 percent) from beyond the arc and 19-of-47 (40.4 percent) overall. (SB)
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