CHISM-LED RAIN OR SHINE BUNDLES OUT MERALCO
Rain or Shine advanced to the semifinals with a nail-biting 97-96 overtime victory over Meralco Saturday in the 2014 PLDT Home TVolution PBA Commissioner’s Cup Saturday at the Smart-Araneta Coliseum.
The Elasto Painters, who got the best game in the conference so far from import Wayne Chism, won the best-of-three series against the Bolts, two games to one.
Up next for Rain or Shine are the undefeated and playoffs top seed Talk ‘N Text in a best-of-five semis series starting on Monday.
Slowly improving as the conference wears on, Chism flat out dominated the game, playing for 53 straight minutes to finish with a conference-high 37 points to go with 21 rebounds, four assists, two steals, and three blocks to lead the E-Painters to the semifinals, the franchise’s third straight and fifth in the last six conferences.
It was also a first-ever Commissioner’s Cup semifinal appearance for Rain or Shine.
“He just carried us in his shoulders. He’s a far more superior import than Jackson, and I think that’s our advantage,” said Rain or Shine head coach Yeng Guiao in the post-game interview. “It’s another grind-out game for us and we’re getting a lot of good games.”
Paul Lee added 18 markers for Rain or Shine, as he, along with Chism and Jeff Chan, took care of the scoring cudgels in the extra period.
“One thing we discovered after Game 1 which we lost is that their import couldn’t play defense. We just attacked that weakness and exploited and we ran all our ball screens and pick-and-rolls on the import, and that’s how we got our openings and how we were able to survive Meralco in this series,” Guiao said.
“We just kept going to that in our last two games. We had no other plays. We just had one play which is to force the import to play defense on our guards. They were switching that for a while, they were putting a local to guard that ball screen, but what happened was when Wayne Chism rolled to the basket with a local on him, he was able to dominate the middle so they put back the import on him and we just got back to our old play.”
With Rain or Shine leading by 11, 85-74, a shade under four minutes to play in the fourth period, Jared Dillinger, Sunday Salvacion, and Gary David refused to stay down as the Bolts fired an 11-0 run capped by a David right baseline jumper to knot the score at 85 with 4.4 ticks to play. Chism couldn’t get hold of the ball in the dying seconds of regulation, sending the game to overtime.
But it was a different Rain or Shine team in the extra period, as Chan and Chism combined to give their team a six-point edge, 91-85 with 3:24 to play. Lee further padded the lead, 95-87, but once again, David came to rescue Meralco after back-to-back hits from three cut the lead to two, 95-93.
But that momentum proved to be a double-edged sword as the Bataan gunner misfired a three-pointer with 20 seconds remaining, resulting in Lee shooting the insurance freebies that iced the game with 5.7 seconds remaining.
David still connected on a trey with 0.4 ticks left, but the time just went against their will, sending the E-Painters to a semis date against Meralco’s sister team Talk ‘N Text.
It was the third straight Commissioner’s Cup the Bolts bungled a 1-0 lead in a best-of-3 quarterfinal, also losing to B-Meg then San Mig Coffee in 2012 and 2013, respectively.
“We got to the semis in a different way this conference, but the important thing is getting to the semis and being consistent,” Guiao said, who apologized earlier for the slur he hurled towards Cliff Hodge after Game 2. But he was still upset over the energetic forward’s “reckless plays” throughout the game.
“The boys have been working hard. The coaching staff have been working hard and we have one day to prepare against the best team in the league right now which is Talk ‘N Text. We’ll look at it as a challenge and if you want to be the best, you have to beat the best. That’s as simple as it gets.”
Darnell Jackson also played all-game long and still led the Bolts with 31 points and 13 rebounds, even as David had 20 points on a 3-of-6 shooting from rainbow country. Sunday Salvacion added 18 built around four triples which made him only the 17th player in league history with at least 600 made in a career. (RL)
The scores: (Click HERE for full boxscores)
RAIN OR SHINE 97 – Chism 37, Lee 18, Belga 9, Norwood 8, Chan 7, Cruz 4, Almazan 4, Tiu 4, Ibanes 4, Arana 2, Tang 0.
MERALCO 96 – Jackson 31, David 20, Salvacion 18, Hugnatan 6, Dillinger 5, Hodge 5, Al-Hussaini 4, Wilson 4, Sena 3, Timberlake 0, Caram 0.
Quarterscores: 20-28, 48-46, 70-66, 85-85, 97-96.
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