Rain or Shine overwhelms Mahindra
RAIN or Shine displayed excellent ball in the first 39 minutes of play to carve a 105-83 victory over Mahindra Wednesday in the PBA Philippine Cup at the Ynares Sports Center in Antipolo City.
The Elasto Painters displayed a much better chemistry and a well-rounded attack to erect a 49-point bulge before easing up on the throttle somewhat that enabled the Floodbusters to close the gap to a more respectable margin.
The way his team practically allowed Mahindra to stage a comeback displeased Rain or Shine coach Caloy Garcia no end.
“Poor fourth quarter for us,” said Garcia, whose team got outscored 7-34 in the last nine minutes of the payoff period.
“We could have played better,” stressed Garcia. “I told them we shouldn’t be looking at the scores because we need to be consistent. Marami kaming turnovers nu’ng fourth and we allowed them to attack the basket with no defense at all.
“Ïf the game was close we could have lost.”
Good thing the E-Painters have built up a very safe 98-49 lead before that veritable meltdown.
In the end, Rain or Shine still notched a fitting follow up to its 101-87 win against TNT KaTropa in their opener last Wednesday to join idle Blackwater at the top of the standings while improving its head-to-head record over the team formerly known as Kia to 7-0.
The loss was Mahindra’s second straight, dropping it to the cellar.
Alex Mallari and Philip Paniamogan each scored 10 points to pace the Floodbusters with the latter scoring all of his points during a 20-0 run that cut the deficit to 69-98.
Joseph Eriobu, former E-Painter Josan Nimes, LA Revilla and Russel Escoto then took over and further closed the gap to what it was in the end.
Jericho Cruz notched 15 points, Maverick Ahanmisi 14, Chris Tiu 11 and James Yap, finally in harness, 10 to lead Rain or Shine, which had 14 of 15 players scoring.
In all, the E-Painters went 18-for-40 from beyond the arc with Ahanmisi’s third of the game pegging that 49-point difference, 9:39 left in the game.
It was Yap’s two triples that were special, though, as those were enough to put him at fifth all-time among players with at least 1,000 three-pointers made.
The likes of Tiu, Mike Tolomia and Jireh Ibanes also had their own treys as Rain or Shine boomed in five in the third period alone to pad a 61-32 halftime lead to 92-48 going to the final quarter.
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