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BELGA-LED RAIN OR SHINE FIRST TEAM IN FINAL 4
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BEAU Belga reprised his hero’s role anew Wednesday and Rain or Shine is all the better because of it.
The burly center came up big in the stretch to lift the Elasto Painters to a 106-96 victory over GlobalPort and into the semifinals of the PLDT myDSL PBA Philippine Cup at the Mall of Asia Arena.
Belga, who provided the biggest difference in the first game against Meralco and, lately, Talk N Text, scored six of his 17 points in the last 40.5 seconds of the game, single-handedly plucking Rain or Shine out of a98-96 count and into its eighth straight win.
More important, the E-Painters made it first to the final four with their next opponent either Petron Blaze or Barako Bull.
GlobalPort was looking to force a winner-take-all game and partly has itself to blame for coming up short and will wind up either seventh or eighth.
The Batang Pier failed to buy a single point despite eight offensive thrusts after Rudy Lingganay’s jumper capped their uprising from 15 points down in the third period and put them within 96-98, still 3:22 left.
Still, E-Painters coach Yeng Guiao couldn’t help but give credit to the Mikee Romero-owned franchise for putting up a tough stance.
“GlobalPort kept coming back, we can’t put them away. I thought they’d give up in the third quarter. It will be a good solid team,” said Guiao.
The break is also a welcome one for Rain or Shine, according to Guiao. “We’ll take a day break tomorrow then prepare for the semifinals,” he said. “Credit goes to the guys. We kept our win-streak but we don’t want to focus on that. We want to focus on the semis. Everybody is contributing and proving themselves. “
Jervy Cruz scored 18 points to lead Rain or Shine, which aside from Belga, also drew at least 10 points each from the likes of Larry Rodriguez, Gabe Norwood, Ryan Arana and Paul Lee.
Most of the credit should go to Belga, who also wound up with six boards and four steals.
Coming in to replace JR Quinahan, who seemed to have hurt his right knee in the final 1:26 of the game, Belga promptly muffed two free throws.
It turned out he was merely warming up as he made GlobalPort pay dearly for its misses by draining a trey, canned three charities and even had a steal and a block in the endgame.
Terrence Romeo notched 23 points to lead all scorers, but he was limited to just four points in the second half after exploding for 19 in the first half. He also accounted for two of GlobalPort’s misses in the endgame and his was the pass Belga picked off.
Kelly Nabong equaled his career-high with 18 points with Sol Mercado adding 16 for the Batang Pier. The two were mainly responsible in bringing the team back from what was once a 64-79 deficit.
Jeric Teng’s lone basket came off a post move against Lingganay, making it 98-90, but Nabong, Mercado and Lingganay came up with the cluster that whittled the deficit to just two.
It was practically the same story in the first half, with Rain or Shine seizing control midway in the first period to post a 48-33 spread, only to see GlobalPort stay within striking distance. (NC)
The scores:
Rain or Shine 106 –Cruz 18, Belga 17, Rodriguez 16, Norwood 14, Arana 10, Lee 10, Quinahan 5, Tang 5, Almazan 4, Tiu 3, Nuyles 2, Teng 2, Ibanes 0.
GlobalPort 96 — Romeo 23, Nabong 18, Mercado 16, Yee 7, Menk 7, Hayes 6, Salvador 6, Lingganay 5, Chua 4, Ponferada 4, Belencion 0, Salva 0, Garcia 0.
Quarterscores: 35-29; 60-52; 86-77; 106-96
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