NUYLES-LED RAIN OR SHINE GETS BACK AT MERCADO-LESS GLOBALPORT
COACH Yeng Guiao wanted some things in his Rain or Shine team’s rematch with GlobalPort Sunday, but was denied most of those.
So Guiao and his Elasto Painters settled for the next best thing, which was a 98-87 revenge win over the Batang Pier in the PLDT myDSL PBA Philippine Cup eliminations at the Mall of Asia Arena.
Rookie Alex Nuyles’ career-high 16 points were enough to pace Rain or Shine, which poured on the heat, especially in the third quarter, before cruising to its fourth straight win.
In all, the E-Painters improved to an 8-3 win-loss slate, just behind Barangay Ginebra and Petron Blaze in the leaderboard.
The top two teams following the 14-game eliminations are each given a twice-to-beat advantage in the quarterfinals.
Mercado, usually good for 20.2 points, 4.3 assists and 4.1 rebounds per game, suited up but sat out the game due to a strained left Achilles tendon.
Jay Washington scored a game-high 26 points but the Batang Pier still failed to repeat their 90-88 win over the E-Painters the first time they met last Dec. 8, thus sliding to a 4-7 record and a four-way tie for fifth.
“It’s really a win we wanted badly because we lost to the same team the first time we played them,” said Guiao.
“It would have been more satisfying if Sol was playing. We prepared a gameplan defensively against Sol because he really created problems for us that first time. Biglang wala siya kaya nagulat kami but at the same time it was a lucky break for us.”
Guiao also had other plans.
“We looked at this game also as a chance for us to bring up our rookies and Alex played a good game,” said Guiao. “We were also planning to give Raymond Almazan extended minutes, but he got into foul trouble early, so we made do.
“I thought we’d just try to bring up the rookies in as much as we had a comfortable lead going to the fourth (quarter).”
In the meantime, Guiao remains optimistic his team can achieve its immediate goal going to its last elims assignments against Talk ‘N Text, Meralco and Air21.
“Our goal is to keep ourselves alive for a top two and we’ll see what happens. We’re on a winning run and we hope we can sustain this run we’re having,” he said.
Jervy Cruz and TY Tang each added 12 points for Rain or Shine, which welcomed Beau Belga back from sickbay and used a 10-0 run in the third period to stretch its lead to 58-40.
Despite Terrence Romeo fouling out with still 7:16 left in the game, GlobalPort would still threaten at 85-93, off Nico Salva’s shotclock-beating baseline jumper, still 1:43 left.
But whatever hopes the Batang Pier may have had vanished when Tang completed a three-point play off Garcia right in the ensuing play. (NC)
The scores:
RAIN OR SHINE 98 – Nuyles 16, Cruz 12, Tang 12, Chan 11, Tiu 10, Lee 9, Arana 8, Belga 5, Rodriguez 5, Norwood 5, Almazan 3, Quinahan 2, Ibanes 0.
GLOBALPORT 87 – Washington 26, Salva 11, Romeo 10, Garcia 9, Hayes 7, Chua 5, Yee 4, Menk 4, Nabong 4, Salvador 3, Lingganay 2, Revilla 2, Ponferrada 0.
Quarterscores: 22-20, 46-38, 80-67, 98-87
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