Rain or Shine solves Fajardo, San Miguel Beer puzzle

Rain or Shine took advantage of every opportunity to run and punished the slow-reacting San Miguel Beer to avenge its first round loss.

The Elasto Painters finally cracked the code to beat the Beermen and their behemoth June Mar Fajardo, 122-112, for the solo lead in Group B of the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Governors’ Cup Thursday night at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium.

Reinforcement Aaron Fuller and Beau Belga teamed up to make life hard for Fajardo while the rest of Rain or Shine kept their running game going the whole match to come up with seventh win in nine games and end an 11-match losing skid to San Miguel.

“It was just total team effort on defense. June Mar is really a handful for us.  Aaron did an excellent job in just putting a body on June Mar the whole game, Beau also. They worked together doing that role,” Elasto Painters head coach Yeng Guiao said.

Fajardo, who nailed the game-winning jumper at the buzzer in their first meeting, found it difficult to get into his comfort zone with two big bodies pushing him out.

“I think (containing) June Mar was really the key. If you can bring down his efficiency (it means a lot). He really has a high efficiency around the (painted) lane. He’s around 70 percent in that area. So, we tried to play the odds. If he’s not touching the ball within that area, we tried to deny him touches. Even if he’s touching the ball, we want him to touch the ball further away from the basket. It’s a heavy job guarding June Mar,” the mentor said.

“At least we have two bodies guarding June Mar. June Mar trying to push two heavy bodies is gonna tire him out. I think that’s the key,” Guiao added.

Rain or Shine also sustained an up-tempo game, tiring out the Beermen and making a killing on the open court with 37 fastbreak points.

“I think the pace of the game, as I said, I’m pretty confident we can last 48 minutes running because that’s our bread and butter. They are used to half-court sets looking for June Mar at the half-court,” Guiao said.

“I felt confident we could sustain the pace of the game. San Miguel might not be able to do that because that is not their style of play.”

Andrei Caracut led the Elasto Painters with 20 points and eight assists while Fuller had 17 markers, 11 rebounds and four dishes.

Belga and Adrian Nocum got 16 points each, Gian Mamuyac had 12 points while playing assistant coach Gabe Norwood had a double-double of 10 points and 11 boards for Rain or Shine, which got contributions on offense from all 12 players fielded in the game.

The Elasto Painters also shared the ball well with 33 assists.

Rain or Shine took control in the second half, building a 15-point lead, 105-90, early in the fourth. The Elasto Painters kept themselves at a safe distance the rest of the way.

San Miguel slid to a 6-3 card tied with Barangay Ginebra San Miguel.

CJ Perez finished with 27 points, six rebounds and six assists before fouling out with 4:15 left in the game and the Beermen trailing by 12.

Terrence Romeo and import Jordan Adams added 24 markers each while Fajardo had 14 on 7-of-13 field goal shooting and grabbed 12 boards.

Box scores:

RAIN OR SHINE (122) --- Caracut 20, fuller 17, Belga 16, Nocum 16, Mamuyac 12, Norwood 10, Lemetti 8, Clarito 7, Santillan 6, Ildefonso 5, Tiongson 3, Asistio 2

SAN MIGUEL (112) --- Perez 27, Romeo 24, Adams 24, Fajardo 14, Trollano 6, Cruz 5, Manuel 4, Lassiter 3, Ross 3, Teng 2

Quarters: 33-32, 61-59, 97-88, 122-112