Remember January 13, 2017.
For Rain or Shine Elasto Painters mainstays Jeffrei Chan and Beau Belga, that gamedate is something that the two of them and the whole RoS team will never forget.
The then second-seeded Elasto Painters were pitted against league-leaders San Miguel Beermen in that very date — a match deemed to become a tooth-and-nail affair right from the get-go.
As expected, both teams went at it from wire to wire. 48 minutes of regulation were not even enough, and as the extra five minutes came to a close, the match yielded a 107-101 result.
However, Rain or Shine found themselves at the losing end of the highly-touted affair.
Up to this day, the pain of that defeat still lingers for the Elasto Painters. But now in the upcoming 2017 Philippine Cup playoffs, they have one more chance to exact revenge to their tormentors.
RoS, on Friday night, became the eighth and last team to make it to the quarterfinals after knocking out Blackwater Elite and its’ playoff dreams, 103-80, at the Araneta Coliseum.
The win marked their ninth straight appearance in the All-Filipino playoffs since 2008. However, a daunting task is already ahead of them, as they will face the three-peat seeking Beermen today.
It is a tall task indeed for RoS. Heading into today’s playoff clash at 4:30 PM, the Elasto Painters will be playing their third game in five days — a glaring factor that will surely bring fatigue to the whole team.
But for the six-foot-six Belga, there is no more time for the team to sit back and recover.
“‘Di magiging reason yung fatigue eh, kasi playoffs na ‘to eh, kailangan nang i-survive,” told the 30-year-old center.
“Walang option para magkamali. Kailangan ma-survive.”
And despite the challenges RoS will have to face on Sunday, Belga and Chan still likes their team’s chances against SMB, saying that their OT loss served as a fuel that ignited the fire within themselves
“We know we can beat them and na-prove na namin yun. Nagkaroon lang ng lapses. Ako I take it personally as a challenge for me, kasi ako nag-cause nung talo namin. So we need to survive this one,” said Belga.
“Positive ako na kaya namin sila. Actually nung last game [against SMB] nga, turnover lang yung tumalo sa’min eh. We just have to watch films, and tingnan natin anong game plan and adjustments namin against them,” furthered Chan.
Both veterans are confident that RoS can square up well with the mighty Beermen. But, everything will only work in their favor if everybody — from the starters down to the reserves — plays and clicks as one, according to Chan.
“Once na lahat kami nasa isang page, magiging OK kami. Lalabas yung laro namin, gaganda yung laro namin,” the 32-year-old sniper pointed out.
The Elasto Painters have been in tough positions such as this before. And if ever an upset axe gets yielded, it is something that will not come as a surprise anymore.
