By REYNALD MAGALLON
What they failed to accomplish in their first try, the Rain or Shine Elasto Painters made it in their second and final attempt.
Showing grace under intense pressure, the E-Painters leaned on the gutsy performances of their young guns to oust NLEX, 110-100 in their knockout match for the eighth and final spot in the quarterfinals of the 2022 PBA Commissioner’s Cup at the PhilSports Arena on Sunday, Dec. 4
Still licking the wounds from a tough loss to Magnolia that denied them an outright quarters spot last Friday, the Elasto Painters avoided committing the same mistakes as Ryan Pearson, Andrei Caracut and Rey Nambatac came up huge in the final frame to take the big win.
Rain or Shine advanced to the quarterfinals for the first time in the last four conferences, earning the chance to challenge the top seed and twice-to-beat Bay Area.
Pearson didn’t want to go home just yet and bounced back from a meager performance last game, finishing with 24 points and nine rebounds while Caracut dropped a career-high 19 points built on three triple – none bigger than the last one he drilled from the corner and over the outstretched arms of Don Trollano to give his team a nine-point lead, 96-87 with 4:38 to go.
The young gun then went on to nail another huge jumper a few sequences before Leonard Santillan buried another long bomb that handed Elasto Painters a comfortable 12-point cushion, 101-89 with a little over three minutes left.
Nambatac then scored seven of his 10 points inside the final two minutes – including another triple that completely took the fight out of the Road Warriors.
“Natuto pa rin naman ’yung team. These are young guys. ‘Yung di namin nagawa sa Magnolia game namin na to preserve the lead, to hold on to the lead nagawa namin ngayon,” said ROS head coach Yeng Guiao.
Earl Clark did his usual thing finishing with 37 points and 16 rebounds as the Road Warriors engaged the Elasto Painters to a back-and-forth action in the first three quarters.
The breaks of the game, however, went against NLEX as Brandon Ganuelas Rosser appeared to have hurt his right knee early in the third frame although the rest of the Road Warriors still managed to hang tough in the contest.
Don Trollano finished with 15 points while Kevin Alas added 13 as NLEX failed to advance to the playoffs in its first conference under Frankie Lim who incidentally was the one who replaced Guiao when he and the Road Warriors decided to part ways before the start of the tournament.
The scores:
RAIN OR SHINE 110 – Pearson 24, Caracut 19, Nieto 12, Santillan 11, Nambatac 10, Borboran 10, Mamuyac 7, Asistio 5, Norwood 3, Ponferrada 1, Ildefonso 0, Torres 0.
NLEX 100 – Clark 37, Trollano 15, Alas 13, Chua 12, Ganuelas-Rosser 9, Nieto 6, Miranda 3, Varilla 2, Rosales 0.
QUARTERS: 31-27, 51-43, 80-75, 110-100.