TORRENTIAL RAIN OR SHINE
RAIN or Shine rediscovered its fiery touch on a day the weather turned ugly.
Arizona Reid scored 34 points but it was the much-needed local support finally coming that spelled the biggest factor in the Elasto Painters’ 120-93 drubbing of Barako Bull on a rainy Tuesday in the PBA Governors’ Cup at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
Jeff Chan at last shrugged off his shooting woes with a conference-best 20 points while four other teammates scored in double figures as Rain or Shine bounced back in a big way from its worst scoring night just four days earlier.
As a result, the E-Painters matched their victim’s 4-3 win-loss record and took over third-running spot going to what looms as a tough stretch run in the nine-game eliminations phase.
“We finally played well in a long time. Jeff got his bearings back with his outside shots for I think his best game in this conference,” noted Rain or Shine head coach Yeng Guiao.
In all, Rain or Shine made half of its 88 shots from the field and stymied Barako to just 28-of-72 shooting for the tourney’s biggest win.
“Everybody stepped up on both ends. Maganda rin dinipensa namin. Barako was playing well the last few games and we prepared really hard because we know this was a big game.”
Mike Singletary made 31 points but only mainly through a 12-for-16 shooting from the stripe as he was limited to just 8-for-19 from the field.
Only Danny Seigle’s 19 points was the other double digit score for Barako Bull as it trailed from start to finish and went down by as much as 120-91, off Gabe Norwood’s dunk, only 1:10 left in the game.
Guiao also made special mention of Jonathan Uyloan, who ably took over the starting point guard role in lieu of the injured Paul Lee with 12 points and six rebounds. Lee sat the game out to rest a right elbow he hyper-extended in a 76-82 loss to Meralco last Friday.
“Jonathan provided a lot of contributions in the absence of Lee with his rebounding, playmaking and his defense on (Emman) Monfort,” noted Guiao.
Rain or Shine’s final score was the highest by any team in the tourney and the winning margin was also the biggest, eclipsing the 26 posted by Petron Blaze over Air21 last Aug. 28.
Chan, who went into the game averaging just 5.6 points and shooting just 3-for-25 from beyond the arc, made it all possible by going 4-for-5 from three-point land and converting all his three two-pointers.
Larry Rodriguez, Norwood and Ryan Arana also helped fashion the wire-to-wire win that readily became apparent when Rain or Shine got off to a 12-0 start, took the half at 58-40 and went into the fourth period with an 86-64 spread.
The win, according to Guiao, would go a long way in his team’s stretch run in the eliminations, considering they next take on Barangay Ginebra on Saturday and Talk ‘N Text next Wednesday.
Keeping it plain and simple would be key, he added.
“When we lost three of our last four games our offense was really awful so I asked the guys to just look to score and it paid off. I told them to forget the stats, the numbers, the misses we’ve been through in our last few games,” related Guiao.
“I’m hoping we can sustain this,” he added. “Mabigat pa iyung parating and it’s really going to be a struggle for us.” (NC)
The scores:
Rain or Shine 120 – Reid 34, Chan 20, Uyloan 12, Rodriguez 12, Norwood 11, Arana 10, Matias 8, Cruz 7, Tang 4, Ibanes 2, Jaime 0, Belga 0, Quinahan 0.
Barako Bull 93 – Singletary 31, Seigle 19, Macapagal 9, Jensen 7, Cruz 7, Buenafe 6, Weinstein 5, Monfort 2, Intal 2, Gonzales 2, Pena 2, Villanueva 1, Marcelo 0, Bulawan 0, Pennisi 0.
Quarterscores: 27-19, 58-40, 86-64, 120-93
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