RAIN OR SHINE FINALLY WINS ONE
One defeat is enough. Two is too much. For Rain or Shine, the third time’s finally a charm.
After dropping their first two games, the Elasto Painters hammered GlobalPort, 119-97, for their first win in the 2014 PLDT Home Telpad PBA Governors’ Cup Sunday at the Mall of Asia Arena.
Arizona Reid scored 13 of his game-high 30 points in the third quarter, where the E-Painters pulled away in the game, to go with his 13 rebounds and eight assists to lead Rain or Shine to the win that actually ended a 5-game losing streak dating back to the previous conference.
Jeff Chan unloaded 19 markers on a 3-of-5 shooting on threes, while Paul Lee also canned 17 powered by three treys.
Larry Rodriguez added 13 and Ryan Araña chipped in 11, as Rain or Shine snapped its two-game funk to start the season-ending tourney.
“We just shot the ball well in today’s game,” said Rain or Shine coach Yeng Guiao, whose wards shot an even 50-percent from the field. “It’s been a long time since we shot the ball this way. Matagal-tagal na kaming nakakuhang gantong rhythm sa offense.”
The 119 was the highest output for a regulation game this season and was next only to Talk ‘N Text’s 121-119 overtime win over Alaska in the Philippine Cup last Jan. 4.
It was also the Elasto Painters’ 120-93 rout of Barako Bull in this very same conference last year.
“We knew GlobalPort is going to play a running game and they’ll stay with us in the open court, but our attitude was to keep running with them. If they want to run with us, that’s fine. We’ll stretch our bench and use it as much as we can just to keep them fresh,” Guiao said.
The E-Painters outscored the Batang Pier in fastbreak points, 28-5, and in bench points, 55-21.
“It’s a high-scoring game every time you play GlobalPort and that’s exactly what happened and that worked for us. It makes a balanced offense for us. That’s the best thing in this game, it’s not just the import scoring, but the other guys making some contributions,” added the fiery Kapampangan coach, as all but three of the 15 guys he fielded in the game scored at least two points.
Rain or Shine turned the tide in the second half with a strong 39-point third quarter, as they extended their five-point halftime edge, 50-45, to a rout after the third canto, 89-70.
The lead even ballooned to 21, 91-70, after a Larry Rodriguez basket early in the fourth.
But Terrence Romeo helped the Batang Pier claw their way back to 13, and Alex Cabagnot trimmed it more to 12, 102-90, with 3:58 left in the period, before Arizona Reid and three-point bombs from Paul Lee, TY Tang, and Jeff Chan iced the game for Rain or Shine.
“Defensively also, we were able to defend the import relatively well,” Guiao said, as the E-Painters gave GlobalPort reinforcement Leroy Hickerson a hard time in the 40 minutes he logged on the floor. “We know what he can do, and we also did a good job scrambling after a double team. Whenever we put on a double team, the next step is just do a good job scrambling and rotating and we did that today, kaya medyo kumportable yung panalo.”
Hickerson still finished with a double-double of 20 markers and 10 boards but it was Terrence Romeo who led GlobalPort with his 22 points, 14 of them in the fourth while Alex Cabagnot came next with his 21.
Jay Washington just missed on a double-double with 13 points and nine rebounds.
Shifting his views in the days ahead, Guiao took notice of his team’s quarterfinal aspirations and said, “I’m not sure if five wins gets you to top four, but we’re still looking for the top four.”
“Before this game, since we’re 0-2, our objective was to just break in to the win column. We need to be a little modest in our goals. We’re not really playing too good, so we just need to get back our rhythm, our character. Di kami pwedeng mangarap ng masyadong mataas, kailangan medyo isa-isahin muna namin,” he added. (RL)
The scores: (Click HERE for full boxscores)
RAIN OR SHINE 119 – Reid 30, Chan 19, Lee 17, Rodriguez 13, Arana 11, Almazan 7, Norwood 6, Tang 5, Uyloan 4, Teng 3, Belga 2, Tiu 2, Cruz 0, Nuyles 0, Ibanes 0.
GLOBALPORT 97 – Romeo 22, Cabagnot 21, Hickerson 20, Washington 13, Menk 8, Macapagal 6, Garcia 5, Salva 2, Matias 0, Taha 0, Ponferada 0, Salvador 0, Sharma 0.
Quarterscores: 25-25, 50-45, 89-70, 119-97.
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