WAYNE Chism made up for his offensive struggles by coming up with a crucial play and helping Rain or Shine survive Air21, 87-82,Monday and firm up its position in the PLDT Home Tvolution PBA Philippine Cup at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
Chism broke up an Express play in the last 22 seconds, deflecting a Joseph Yeo inbound pass to Wesley Witherspoon that led to an Elasto Painters possession and protected what was otherwise a shaky 84-80 lead.
Gabe Norwood could only come up with a charity split in the ensuing play, but that made it a five-point game and, although Asi Taulava scored underneath to whittle the deficit to just three, there were only 6.5 ticks left.
Fittingly, it was Chism himself who scored the final basket on a two-handed slam off a feed by Ryan Arana that made him wind up with six points, on 2-for-12 field shooting, and nine rebounds.
“Our import’s defensive presence is enough to lift us. This is further testament that you can still win games with defense even if you struggle offensively,” said Rain or Shine head coach Yeng Guiao.
More important for Rain or Shine, it moved up to an even 4-4 slate and a tie with Meralco at sixth spot while dropping Air21 to a 3-5 record and a share of seventh with idle Barangay Ginebra.
“This is a big win for us,” noted Guiao. “We’re trying to get ourselves out of the seventh, eighth places. This gives us a good chance to do that.”
Another win over Barangay Ginebra at eliminations end on Easter Sunday would land the E-Painters right in the middle of the eight-team quarterfinals and an equal footing with its best-of-three opponent.
There is where Chism can display the game Guiao wants from him and not the kind that saw him riding the bench anew due to foul trouble. He scored his first field goal only at the 5:46 mark of the third period, added two free throws shortly after but had to sit it out after incurring his fourth foul 2:44 left.
When re-inserted into the game in the last 4:23 of the game, Chism did help fill up the middle and prevented Air21 from completing its comeback from a 60-73 deficit.
“He’s a lot better in practice and it gives us hope. I don’t think this is the way he plays. He’s a defensive-minded player. Our only requirement of him is being able to rebound, give us his defensive presence in the middle.”
Chism almost became the goat as he stole off Witherspoon, but issued a weak bounce pass to Norwood which Eloy Poligrates intercepted for a short stab that made it an 80-82 count.
Good thing Paul Lee typified the locals’ poise by calmly sinking two charities that gave Rain or Shine the four-point cushion, 23.8 seconds to go.
Jervy Cruz led the E-Painters with 13 points on 6-for-6 field shooting while Lee wound up with 12.
Witherspoon had his own shooting woes, making only six of 20 shots, but still led all scorers with 23 points.
Asi Taulava added 15 points and 12 rebounds with Plograted chipping in a career 2nd-best 13 points.
The Express must win over San Mig Coffee Wednesday to avoid a win-twice handicap against a top two team in the quarterfinals. (NC)
The scores: (full boxscores HERE)
RAIN OR SHINE 87 – Cruz 13, Lee 12, Nuyles 8, Rodriguez 8, Arana 7, Almazan 7, Tiu 7, Norwood 7, Chism 6, Chan 6, Belga 4, Tang 2, Teng 0.
AIR21 82 – Witherspoon 23, Taulava 15, Poligrates 13, Anthony 9, Villanueva 9, Yeo 8, Cardona 4, Borboran 1, Ramos 0, Burtscher 0.
Quarterscores: 18-13, 43-33, 62-55, 87-82
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