Rain or Shine's young guns delivered at crunch time to rescue the Elasto Painters from collapse and boot out TNT, 110-109, in the winner-take-all Game 3 of the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Philippine Cup quarterfinals Wednesday night at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium.
Gian Mamuyac nailed a crucial trey in the last 38 seconds of the ballgame following a couple of foul shots by Keith Datu to give the Elasto Painters enough cushion to stave off the Tropang Giga’s comeback attempt.
Rain or Shine completed a come-from-behind best-of-three series win to set up a best-of-seven semifinals showdown against San Miguel Beer.
Game 1 is set Friday at the Mall of Asia Arena.
“I told my players yesterday in practice, this is going to be our championship game. Most of them have yet to reach the semifinals. Me, personally, it has been quite a while. We felt that this could be a historic game for us,” Elasto Painters head coach Yeng Guiao said of his first semis stint since the 2018 Philippine Cup when he was still handling NLEX.
Mamuyac finished with 25 points on 11-of-20 field goal shooting, Jhonard Clarito had 17 markers and nine rebounds while Santi Santillan scored 15 to pull Rain or Shine to its first semis stint since the 2019 Commissioner’s Cup. Datu and Adrian Nocum added 11 points each.
The Elasto Painters flirted with disaster after squandering a 20-point lead, 75-55, midway in the third quarter when TNT sparked a scorching rally led by Calvin Oftana, who knotted the count at 98 in the last 4:17 of the payoff period.
Tropang Giga veteran Kelly Williams pulled TNT back within one, 101-100, after Andrei Caracut’s triple shattered the final deadlock of the game.
Datu added two charities before Mamuyac drilled a three-pointer followed by a split from the foul line to give Rain or Shine a seven-point lead with 30 seconds left.
Williams tried to keep TNT alive with back-to-back treys between Jhonard Clarito’s split from the free throw. Mamuyac made it a two-possession lead with a couple more foul shots for a 110-106 lead in the last 4.6 seconds. Williams got his last triple to go in at the buzzer for the final count.
“I guess we’re just too lucky. Talk ‘N Text lost a few guys and we started out well. Good thing we had a big lead if not we could’ve lost. TNT is really that good and they played with a lot of class despite missing players, even with Roger(Pogoy) suffering an injury (cramps) at the close of the game,” Guiao said.
Williams had his biggest output in TNT uniform with 32 points and pulled down 14 rebounds.
Oftana, who committed three costly turnovers in the last two minutes, had 27 points and nine rebounds for TNT, which played sans big man Brandon Ganuelas-Rosser due to a knee injury.
Pogoy made 22 markers but was stretchered out of the court with 2:19 left due to cramps and Glenn Khobuntin had 10 markers for the Tropang Giga, who took the series opener last Friday in a 116-99 blowout only to get swept in the next two.
Box score:
RAIN OR SHINE (110) – Mamuyac 25, Clarito 17, Santillan 15, Datu 11, Nocum 11, Ildefonso 10, Norwood 6, Caracut 5, Asistio 5, Belga 5, Demusis 0
TNT (109) – K.Williams 32, Oftana 27, Pogoy 22, Khobuntin 10, Montalbo 4, Castro 4, Aurin 4, Galinato 2, Heruela 2, M.Ganuelas-Rosser 2, Reyes 0, Ponferrada 0
Quarters: 39-22, 59-45, 89-72, 110-109
