Rain or Shine completes semifinals cast

Rain or Shine overcame a twice-to-win disadvantage over No. 2 seed NLEX, 103-92, to punch a semifinals ticket in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Philippine Cup Saturday at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium.

The seventh seeded Elasto Painters shocked the Road Warriors with a huge second half uprising after going down by 11 points in the second quarter to enter their fourth consecutive Final Four appearance.

Rain or Shine will face grand slam-seeking TNT, which stunned No. 3 seed Magnolia, in the best-of-seven semifinals starting Wednesday.

“We pulled through. I think this is our fourth straight time in the semis,” Elasto Painters head coach Yeng Guiao said.

“But we committed a lot of mistakes. We gave up 25 points on rebounds. We gave up 19 turnovers. We lost in fastbreak points. We thought fastbreak is our game but we lost in that part but we still won the game. This is what we’ve been talking about inside our locker room, just play our brand of game. We call it buwis buhay basketball,” he added.

Leonard Santillan fired 24 points on 9-of-15 field goal shooting and pulled down nine rebounds while Andrei Caracut had 19 markers for Rain or Shine, which took Game 1 last Wednesday, 92-89.

Jhonard Clarito finished with a double-double of 13 points and 16 rebounds while Anton Asistio and Mike Malonzo added 11 and 10 markers, respectively, for the Elasto Painters.

Rain or Shine outscored NLEX, 25-15, in the fourth quarter after closing the third period with just a one-point advantage behind Caelan Tiongson’s eight points in a strong payoff period showing.

NLEX looked in control in the second quarter, building a 39-28 lead only to sputter and eventually squander a hard-earned quarters incentive.

Robert Bolick got 34 points while JB Bahio and Brandon Ramirez had 11 and 10 markers, respectively.

Top seed San Miguel Beer and Barangay Ginebra figure in the other semis pairing.

The scores:

RAIN OR SHINE (103) --- Santillan 24, Caracut 16, Clarito 13, Asistio 11, Malonzo 10, Mamuyac 9, Tiongson 8, Nocum 5, Norwood 4, Porter 3, Datu 0

NLEX (92) --- Bolick 34, Bahio 11, Ramirez 10, Mocon 9, Fajardo 7, Semerad 6, Policarpio 5, Torres 4, Nieto 2, Alas 2, Valdez 2

Quarters: 21-27, 52-55, 78-77, 103-92