ANTIPOLO — Rain or Shine needed to do a little bit of everything to gut out a 115-111 victory over Ginebra and take Game 1 of their PBA Season 50 Commissioner’s Cup semifinals at the Ynares Center here, Wednesday night.
Adrian Nocum capitalized on a Justin Brownlee foul and sank both of his charities to give themselves the lead for good at 108-107 with 1:56 to go, before Jhonard Clarito and Gian Mamuyac came in to push the spread to six.
Yet that lead wasn’t totally safe as the Kings put up a last-ditch effort to come back, with Scottie Thompson–swollen forehead and all–knocking down a booming four to cut the gap to a field goal, 113-111, with only 19.8 seconds left.
Clarito, though, would come through with a pair of free throws for the eventual scoreline with 16.1 seconds left, before the Elasto Painters leaned on defense to deny RJ Abarrientos from getting any good look from four as time expired.
