Rain or Shine gave Gabe Norwood more reasons to celebrate his special night as it took down Converge, 120-111, to stretch its unbeaten run to six in the PBA Season 50 Commissioner’s Cup at the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay, Friday.
The franchise dedicated the game to the 41-year-old as it retired his jersey no. 5 during halftime, and the present-day Elasto Painters made sure not to spoil the occasion with a big third-quarter showing toward staying atop the standings.
Coach Yeng Guiao’s men were already ahead by seven at the break, but the rites seemingly gave an added jolt to the whole crew, turning in 34 big points in the said period to build a commanding 95-75 lead entering the deciding frame.
Just like against San Miguel, though, the opposition clawed its way back and knocked within a field goal behind Juan Gomez de Liano with 2:52 left.
(C) PBA Images
But Caelan Tiongson was there to halt their momentum with a perfect trip to the foul line, and then came Jaylen Johnson, who knocked down two crucial threes, the last of which settled the eventual scoreline with 20.9 seconds left.
“We wanted this win really for Gabe. We did not want to disappoint him on the day of his jersey retirement,” the champion bench tactician said.
“Mas masaya si Gabe ‘pag maganda ‘yung nilaro ng team. It’s really an effort by the team just to keep honoring Gabe’s legacy sa franchise namin,” he added.
‘JJ’ scored their last eight points of the game and went on to finish with 35 points alongside 21 rebounds, three assists, a steal, and two blocks.
Gian Mamuyac supplied 21 points on 9-of-13 shooting. Tiongson made 14 points, Andrei Caracut had 12 points–half of which he earned from three-point distance–while Felix Lemetti chipped in 10 markers in the win.
“Nandoon pa rin ‘yung swerte. One of these nights, hindi namin masu-survive ‘yung ganoong mga rally, but hanggang may momentum, hanggang sinusuwerte, we’ll take the wins,” Guiao offered. “A win is a win.”
Now closer to a quarterfinal berth, Rain or Shine will look to continue piling up the wins in a relatively lighter schedule in its next three games, first against Terrafirma on April 15 and then Phoenix (April 21) and Magnolia (April 25).
(C) PBA Images
Alec Stockton, on the other hand, led Converge with 17 points in the loss, which is already their fifth straight after a triumphant debut versus Macau.
Mikey Williams made 16 points and 10 assists for his first double-double since coming back to the league. Kylor Kelley also had 16 points on top of 16 rebounds, with Justin Arana scoring the same amount of points.
The FiberXers will look to snap their harrowing skid when they take on another struggling side in Titan Ultra on April 15 at the Ynares Center in Antipolo.
The Scores:
Rain or Shine 120 – Johnson 35, Mamuyac 21, Tiongson 14, Caracut 12, Lemetti 10, Nocum 8, Malonzo 7, Clarito 5, David 3, Manaytay 2, Roque 2, Santillan 1, Villegas 0.
Converge 111 – Stockton 17, Williams 16, Kelley 16, Arana 16, Gomez de Liano 14, Polcarpio 11, Baltazar 9, Abueva 5, Garcia 5, Muyang 2, Concepcion 0.
Quarterscores: 31-29, 61-54, 95-75, 120-111.
