Jay Washington scored just six points, but those points came when it mattered for the Rain or Shine Elasto Painters as they outlasted Blackwater Elite, 95-88, Sunday evening at the Ynares Center, Antipolo City.
“I guess the story was the big shot of J-Wash,” lauded Rain or Shine head coach Caloy Garcia of his veteran forward. “J-Wash is a veteran. He didn’t hesitate to shoot. Kudos to him.”
The 6-foot-7Â stretch big man showed up in the game’s final three-minute stretch. With the scored locked up at 87-all, Washington hit an open triple from the left corner to put Rain or Shine ahead, 90-87, with 2:45 remaining.
His next big play came over a minute afterwards. As Blackwater came within two, 90-88, after a Greg Smith split, Washington hit his second triple, this time off a pick-and-pop set to widen the gap for Rain or Shine, 93-88, with 1:39 left.
The Elite tried to get back into the game, but all their attempts missed their target. Guard Jericho Cruz’s lay-up off a steal — to cap off a wild 11-1 run — with 7.3 ticks left signaled the end of the night for Blackwater.
But despite the victory, Garcia still remains dissatisfied with the way the Elasto Painters played, which saw them commit 20 turnovers, negating the 45 percent shooting clip, 37-of-81, they made.
“But still, we can’t be happy with the way we’re playing. We can still do better, especially on the execution. There were times we should’ve called timeout and we just lost the ball,” said Garcia.
“But [those are] lessons we have to continue learning. We just have to play as a team. Blackwater came out strong today and it’s nice having the win,” he furthered.
Shawn Taggart paced Rain or Shine with 26 markers on 11-of-23 shooting along with 12 rebounds. Cruz and Maverick Ahanmisi each had 12 points on a combined 6-of-10 shooting from the floor. James Yap added 11.
Smith carried Blackwater with 34 points by going 13-of-33 from the floor and 20 rebounds. Forwards Reil Cervantes and Kyle Pascual backed the American with 12 and 10 markers, respectively, in a losing effort — their third straight loss.
The Elasto Painters’ bench made their presence felt on the win, contributing 41 points of their total output.
Rain or Shine will gun for their fourth straight victory against Meralco this Wednesday, March 29, 7:00 PM at the Mall of Asia Arena, while Blackwater will try to end their skid versus TNT on Friday, March 31, 4:15 PM at the SMART-Araneta Coliseum.
The Scores:
Rain or Shine (95) – Taggart 26, Ahanmisi 12, Cruz 12, Yap 11, Belga 9, Chan 8, Tiu 8, Washington 6, Norwood 2, Ponferrada 1, Almazan 0.
Blackwater (88) – Smith 34, Cervantes 12, Pascual 10, Belo 7, Buenafe 7, Pinto 7, Sena 6, Sumang 3, Aguilar 2, DiGregorio 0, Forrester 0, Gamalinda 0, Miranda 0.
Quarterscores: 26-29, 44-47, 68-70, 95-88.
