Rain or Shine sweeps Ginebra for semis berth
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Based on its experience in the series opener Rain or Shine has braced itself for a drawn-out duel with Barangay Ginebra.
Jeff Chan and JR Quinahan led a group of Elasto Painters who had other plans.
Chan scored 22 points and Quinahan came off the bench to deliver 21 as Rain or Shine pulled off a 102-89 victory Tuesday that made short work of their Oppo-PBA Commissioner’s Cup quarterfinals matchup at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
With its followup to its come-from-behind 88-84 win last Sunday Rain or Shine thus completed a sweep of the best-of-three quarterfinals duel, one coach Yeng Guiao admitted was far from his mind.
“We didn’t expect to go 2-0 against Ginebra,” related Guiao. “We’re looking to go all the way to Game 3. I guess it’s our speed. We wanted it to be a fast-paced series. We know we’re not gonna beat them on a deliberate halfcourt game, which is their game.”
Maverick Ahanmisi also came up big with 13 points, all coming in the second half that saw the E-Painters stress their game-long dominance by leading by as much as 98-82, only 1:42 left.
“We played good d tonight,” assessed Guiao, whose team had to scramble back from an early 19-point deficit in the series opener.
“We tried to avoid the bad start we had the other game,” added Guiao. “We played excellent defense, especially in the second half. Everybody was hustling.”
As a result, Rain or Shine realized a ninth straight Final Four stint and will next meet the winner of the San Miguel Beer-Star pairing set to be decided Wednesday evening.
Ginebra, which entered the duel ranked a notch higher than its fifth-seeded foe, has now failed to advance past the quarterfinals in the last seven conferences and all because it could not keep pace with the up-tempo game Rain or Shine set from the start nor the latter’s torrid shooting.
Against the alternating leech-like defense of Gabe Norwood and Jireh Ibanes Othyus Jeffers still wound up with 27 points and 14 rebounds and all the Kings’ starters actually finished with at least 10 points. But Guiao’s bench, spearheaded by Quinahan and Ahanmisi, routed its Ginebra counterpart 55-13.
Led by Chan’s four triples, the E-Painters also went 11-for-33 from beyond the arc to the Kings’ 3-for-17 and their 15-11 advantage in second chance points negated their four-point disadvantage in points in the paint.
In all, Ginebra made just 33 of 85 field goal attempts to Rain or Shine’s 41-for-87 clip.
“JR played another excellent game,” said Guiao. “He stepped up. He stopped the momentum of the other team. Maverick stepped up, Gabe and Jireh did a great job on the import. Jeffers had to bleed for his points,” said Guiao.
Pierre Henderson-Niles finished with only 10 points but had 14 rebounds, numbers enough to please Guiao.
“I am happy with our import. At least we’re not being dominated inside,” he said.
Ginebra’s towering frontline of Greg Slaughter and Japeth Aguilar combined for 28 points and 16 rebounds, but they were often left lagging in transition and forced to take majority of their shots from the outside, with little success.
Rain or Shine had no such problems, racing to a 10-point lead as early as the first quarter and extending the difference to 15 points early in the fourth.
Ginebra actually found its touch from deep only in the final canto, with LA Tenorio’s triples sparking and capping an 11-3 burst that put the Kings within 77-86, still 6:26 left.
But Quinahan sank an off-balanced jumper and Ahanmisi drained two charities to push the lead back up to 13. When Chan returned, he promptly scored six points in an 8-2 run that made it an unassailable 98-82 count.
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