Pinoy Pride: All-Filipino RoS stuns Meralco

Games today:

(Smart Araneta Coliseum)

5:15 p.m. — Magnolia vs Macau

7:30 p.m. — TNT vs San Miguel Beer

An all-Filipino Rain or Shine barely felt the absence of suspended import Jaylen Johnson and remained unbeaten as it claimed a third straight win over Meralco, 109-102, in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Season 50 Commissioner’s Cup on Friday at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

Felix Lemetti and Adrian Nocum took care of the scoring chores leading three other locals in double-figure production for the now league-leading and spotless Elasto Painters.

Lemetti fired 23 points on 5-of-10 field goal shooting and scored six in Rain or Shine’s decisive 11-0 run inside the last four minutes of the final period to get out of the woods when the Bolts closed the gap to just one.

Nocum added 17 points and six rebounds, Caelan Tiongson added 16 and Jhonard Clarito finished with 15.

Christian Manaytay converted all of his five field goal attempts for 12 points for Rain or Shine, which missed the services of 7-footer Johnson following his one-game ban and P50,000 fine for engaging in a fistfight with Glenn Khobuntin in the team’s close-shaved victory over defending champion TNT.

“We wanted to just offer up the effort to Jaylen, to JJ. We knew he wanted to play this and help us out. Maybe we don’t need him anymore and send him home,” quipped the fiery but delighted Elasto Painters head coach Yeng Guiao.

Johnson will return on Tuesday against Blackwater.

Even without its reinforcement, Rain or Shine took control of the game early despite a four-point deficit in the opening stretch of the opening quarter.

The Elasto Painter went up by as many as 17 points, 45-28, on a converted three-point play by Nocum in the last 5:05 of the first half.

Rookie Jason Brickman and Chris Newsome willed Meralco back in the second half after import Marvin Jones went scoreless. A Newsome jumper with 5:11 left in the fourth quarter got the Bolts within one, 95-94.

Big man Luis Villegas knocked down a triple to spark Rain or Shine’s backbreaker as Clarito sealed the run with a basket for a 106-94 advantage with 2:52 left. The Elasto Painters held on from there.

“We caught Meralco on a bad day, that’s the reality. They were kind of complacent maybe. A little bit overconfident. Psychologically, we had the upper hand playing with nothing to lose,” Guiao said.

“The guys were just playing as hard as they can. It’s sheer toughness. We played with a lot of toughness. There were times in the game where we almost looked like losing our momentum but we’re still able to recover. That’s a sign of maturity,” he added.

The Bolts absorbed their first loss after a 2-0 start.

Newsome had 29 points, Jones scored 17 — all in the first half — and pulled down 16 rebounds while Brickman finished with 15 points, 13 coming in the third quarter but went scoreless in the payoff period.

Bong Quinto had 14 points and CJ Cansino added 13 for Meralco.