By REYNALD MAGALLON
Rain or Shine prevailed in a fiery shootout against TNT and spoiled the 50-point debut of Rahlir Hollis-Jefferson and the career-high of Calvin Oftana with a gutsy 119-112 victory to punch a ticket to the playoffs in the 2023- ‘24 PBA Commissioner’s Cup at the Smart Araneta Coliseum on Friday, Jan. 5.
The Elasto Painters proved to have more weapons in their arsenal, unloading a telling 11-0 run inside the final five minutes to outgun the Tropang Giga and pick up their fifth straight victory that capped a huge turnaround to their conference after opening it with five consecutive defeats.
Not only that Rain or Shine finally even their record with a 5-5 slate but also it assured itself a spot in the playoffs even if it loses its remaining game against Converge.
At the forefront of the attack was import Tree Treadwell who despite shooting miserably from the foul line all-game long, took care of two freebies that capped the run. He finished with 25 points and 24 rebounds that more than made up to his 5-of-17 clip from the foul line.
Andrei Caracut had 23 points, Rey Nambatac with 19 and Beau Belga with 16 to match the offensive flurry from TNT which leaned, for the most part on the duo of Hollis-Jefferson and Oftana.
Rahlir, who took the place of injured brother and former TNT reinforcement Rondae, dropped 50 points and 16 rebounds to become only the fifth Tropang Giga player to breach the 50-point mark in their franchise history.
Oftana tried to provide help to Hollis-Jefferson with his own career-game of 37 points.
Meantime, NorthPort bucked a slow start and blasted also-ran Blackwater, 106-89, to also open the new year with an assured spot to the playoffs.
The Batang Pier had to shake off some cobwebs after a two-week break with a strong finishing kick to the first half before the duo of joshua Munzon and Paul Zamar spearheaded an even fiery third quarter show to tear the game wide open.
NorthPort, which improved to a 6-4 record good for the sixth spot in the standings, was only holding on to a slim 35-33 lead before it unloaded a 10-2 flurry to establish a double-digit spread at the break.
Carrying over the momentum from that spurt, the Batang Pier then kept their feet on the gas pedal as Munzon and Zamar led the three-point barrage for NorthPort which after only drilling three long bombs in the first two quarters suddenly erupted for six triples.
Munzon led the assault with 20 points built on four triples to go along with four rebounds, four assists and four steals. Import Venky Jois added an all-around effort of 19 points, 20 rebounds and seven assists as the NorthPort built a lead that went to as high as 24 points and never looked back from there.
