The Rain or Shine Elasto Painters have become the first team to book a quarterfinal spot in the 2018 Commissioner’s Cup following their 96-99 overtime win over the Magnolia Hotshots, Saturday night.
The Elasto Painters have done so as they have earned their sixth win in the mid-seaoson conference. They’re now sitting atop the team standings with a 6-1 card. With the way they’ve been playing, a Top Two finish is seen from them.
However, Chris Tiu doesn’t want to look too far ahead, for a lot of things and scenarios can happen in the league as the tilt approaches its’ tailend.
“We just want to take it one step at a time, one game at a time,” said the heady floor general, who had 10 points, four assists, and three rebounds in the win.
“We don’t want to look too far ahead and just try to keep getting better everyday.”
Head coach Caloy Garcia, meanwhile, doesn’t want his players to get lax even with the quarterfinal berth.
“We can’t relax,” said Garcia, a long-time Elasto Painters strategist. “We want the Top Two kasi yun yung magandang incentive, at least you have two chances to get to the semis.
” Like I said, we can’t relax, we’re playing okay.”
Garcia and Tiu though were in unison that the reason behind their early achievement in the conference has been their character — Saturday’s game has been their third overtime game this conference, after Alaska and San Miguel.
All those overtime games of theirs led to victories.
“I think sa six wins namin we have three overtimes, it just shows the character of the team na we can win close games. That’s one thing we can say tonight, that we build on character,” said Garcia, who has yet to reach the semis in his term.
“I think we’ve had three overtime games out of the six that we’ve won. Even those that didn’t go through OT were really down the wire,” opined Tiu, on the other hand.
“It’s a good practice for us to play in these kinds of situations.”
