E-PAINTERS PULL ESCAPE ACT VS. ROAD WARRIORS
Great escape.
Rain or Shine pulled one to stretch its streak to four games as the Elasto Painters regrouped after falling in a seven-point hole in the last two minutes of play and salvaged a 95-93 nail-biter over the badly stunned NLEX side in the PBA Philippine Cup at the Smart Araneta Coliseum Tuesday night.
The E-Painters blew away a 15-point spread but made their own fightback from an 84-91 down to stay right behind joint leaders the Alaska Milk Aces (7-1) and the San Miguel Beermen (7-1).
“They came hard at us, they came strong at us, and we pulled it the hard way,” said Rain or Shine coach Yeng Guiao as they nailed the crucial win that improved their record to 6-2.
“We’re still on a run. We’ve recovered from a bad start (in the tourney) and what we want to do is end this elims with a strong finish. And maybe, we can make a run at an outright semis entry,” Guiao also said.
For a while, it appeared Rain or Shine would drop a sorry loss and move two games off the pace.
But the E-Painters would pull off an amazing comeback win — with injuries, their depleted lineup and all.
“We really got it the hard way and that provided a lot of excitement for everybody. We didn’t get much excitement on the Pacquiao fight. We provided them,” said Guiao.
Paul Lee, Beau Belga and Gabe Norwood delivered the winning effort for the E-Painters who handed the Road Warriors a fifth loss against three wins.
The E-Painters were still down by six at 87-93 before the three squeezed RoS through on an 8-0 finish in the last 37 seconds.
Lee banged in a trey then canned in two charities as Rain or Shine spurted ahead at 94-93 with 21.5 ticks left.
Belga then made two defensive stops on Asi Taulava aside from tossing in a foul shot as the Elasto Painters eventually dealt the Road Warriors a heart-rending loss.
NLEX executed a good play that had KG Canaleta scoring on an alley-oop by Jonas Villanueva as the Road Warriors took the 93-87 lead.
At 93-92, the Road Warriors ran the same play, but Canaleta muffed the shot, opening an opportunity for ROS to steal the game.
At 95-93 with 6.1 ticks left, Belga capped their comeback triumph in blocking a shot by Taulava at the buzzer. (SB)
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