ANTIPOLO — Rain or Shine showed its ability to focus amidst the chaos to foil Blackwater, 110-100, and bounce back from its disappointing loss the last time out in the PBA Season 50 Philippine Cup, Friday at the Ynares Center here.
The Elasto Painters blew a lead as big as 19 points and found themselves staring at a 77-71 deficit entering the fourth no thanks to the Bossing’s 36-point explosion in the quarter prior, but poise proved to be the biggest difference.
Jhonard Clarito nailed back-to-back buckets inside to erase an 88-85 gap, before Keith Datu and Adrian Nocum came in with hits of their own as the troika joined hands for the telling 16-3 run toward a 101-91 lead with 2:52 to go.
The opposition tried to fight back again behind Christian Daviid and did manage to chop the spread to five with 2:07 left, but Anton Asistio, Clarito, and Nocum strung together nine straight points for the 110-96 lead to put it away.
(C) PBA Images
“Basketball is a game of runs,” said head coach Yeng Guiao. “They got their run, they were able to cut our lead and even got the lead, and then we came back at the right time. I think ‘yun ang importante, na nakabalik kami.
“We maintained our composure,” he added. “It was a good endgame finish for us. I guess it’s just accumulated experience learning from making the semis and being able to get the stops, making the right plays at the right time.”
Datu top-scored for Rain or Shine with 20 points, half of which he made in the first quarter alone as he led their 21-3 start into the match that put the team ahead until that aforementioned third-quarter turnaround by their foes.
Datu shot 8-of-14 from the field and also collected eight rebounds, an assist, and a pair of blocks in 26 minutes, earning Player of the Game honors.
Nocum finished with 17 points, including 10 in the final frame. Clarito supplied 16 while Gian Mamuyac tallied 13 points, six rebounds, and five assists in the solid bounce-back from their 111-93 defeat to San Miguel last Sunday.
“The ball just wasn’t dropping in that game,” said Guiao of that loss. “But today, we tried to be a little bit more conservative with our shot selection.”
The Elasto Painters improved to 2-1 following the character win and will shoot for their winning streak of the season when they test the mettle of Titan Ultra on Sunday, October 26, also in this venue. Game time is set at 5:15 p.m.
(C) PBA Images
Richard Escoto, meanwhile, led Blackwater with 20 points in the loss, which is now their second in a row after a successful debut versus Terrafirma.
Escoto scored 11 in the third as he was responsible for giving his team its first lead, knocking down a triple for the 65-64 edge before Sedrick Barefield and David helped out to push the cushion to 77-69 before the quarter ended.
Jack Cruz-Dumont backed him up with 19 points, including the big four-pointer for the 87-85 lead with 7:53 to go that sparked hopes of an upset, only to falter in the end as they proved no match to Rain or Shine’s experience.
David had 18 points and five rebounds while Barefield added 15 points on 20 shots as he was denied by the opposing defense down the stretch.
Barefield scored just one point during the deciding canto–that, after scoring 10 in the third quarter as he helped spearhead the rally alongside Escoto.
Now at 1-2, the Bossing will look to arrest their skid when they face NLEX on October 29, Wednesday, 5:15 p.m. at the Ynares Center here as well.
The Scores:
Rain or Shine 110 – Datu 20, Nocum 17, Clarito 16, Mamuyac 13, Malonzo 8, Asistio 8, Santillan 7, Lemetti 5, Belga 5, Porter 4, Norwood 3, Caracut 2, Ildefonso 2.
Blackwater 100 – Escoto 20, Dumont 19, David 18, Barefield 15, Zamar 7, Tratter 5, Mendoza 4, Panopio 4, Guinto 3, Jopia 3, Andrade 2, Murrell 0.
Quarterscores: 27-17, 55-41, 71-77, 110-100.
