RAIN OR SHINE SECURES PLAYOFFS BERTH
Rain or Shine continued its hot streak with a 104-85 victory over Meralco for its fourth straight victory, grabbing solo fourth place and securing a playoffs spot in the 2014 PLDT Home Telpad PBA Governors’ Cup Tuesday at the Smart-Araneta Coliseum.
The Elasto Painters broke free from the three-way tie it previously had with Air21 and San Miguel Beer to take a momentary hold of the top four, as it rose to a 5-3 slate which is good enough for a place in the eight-team quarterfinals.
Arizona Reid once again made a good account of himself with a monster double-double of 25 points, 14 coming in the pivotal second period, and grabbed 15 rebounds, while Raymond Almazan also logged in a double-double of his own with 12 markers and 15 boards, alongside his four blocks.
Gabe Norwood also finished with 12 points for the E-Painters.
“We’re just riding our momentum,” said Rain or Shine head coach Yeng Guiao. “We’re still playing good defense, but the reason why we’re winning is that everybody’s making a contribution to the team, even the guys coming from the bench, the rookies. We’re healthy except for JR (Quinahan).”
Save for Jireh Ibanes who played for eight minutes, all E-Painters scored at least a point in the victory which dropped Meralco to a 2-6 slate.
After trailing by 12 at the 10:07 mark of the second quarter, 34-21, Rain or Shine dug itself back into the game and took a 51-46 halftime edge.
They then broke the game wide open in the fourth, outscoring the Bolts, 33-22, and led by as big as 20, pushing the ball whenever they got possession and running the Bolts to the ground en route to a 23-11 fastbreak points edge.
“I hope it’s not too late,” Guiao said, looking ahead to the playoffs, where the top four seeds will carry a twice-to-beat advantage in the quarters. “We’re trying to make the top four. We need to win one more game. We started out slow, but we’re trying to make up for the slow start that we had.
“We hope we don’t lose steam. We have one more game left and that’s going to be really crucial for us if we want to make that twice-to-beat advantage,” he said.
The E-Painters will wrap up their campaign in the eliminations next Monday in a Philippine Cup Finals rematch against San Mig Coffee at the Big Dome.
Mario West led Meralco with 29 points and eight boards, while Cliff Hodge had a double-double of 17 markers and 10 rebounds, to go with five assists. Mike Cortez also chimed in 10 for the Bolts. (RL)
The scores: (Click HERE for full boxscores)
RAIN OR SHINE 104 – Reid 25, Almazan 12, Norwood 12, Belga 9, Tiu 9, Nuyles 6, Cruz 5, Arana 5, Lee 5, Uyloan 4, Chan 4, Rodriguez 4, Tang 3, Teng 1, Ibanes 0.
MERALCO 85 – West 29, Hodge 17, Cortez 10, Ballesteros 7, David 7, Dillinger 7, Hugnatan 6, Guevarra 2, Ildefonso 0, Caram 0, Salvacion 0.
Quarterscores: 20-23, 51-46, 71-63, 104-85.
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