Team effort — not luck — powered Rain or Shine to a thrilling 110-109 win over TNT Tropang Giga in Game 3 of their Philippine Basketball Association Governors’ Cup best-of-seven semifinal series late Sunday at the Dasmariñas City Arena.
Elasto Painters coach Yeng Guiao said they worked extra hard, knowing that falling to a 0-3 hole will put their title chances in great peril in the season-opening conference.
True enough, the Elasto Painters refused to get intimidated by the star-studded Tropang Giga side.
Their unforgiving defense was on full display in the closing seconds when they thwarted the close-range shot of import Rondae Hollis-Jefferson in the final seconds that could have given the victory to the Tropang Giga.
“Their import played great, Poy (Erram) played great but I think we played more as a team today,” said Guiao, who transformed the young Elasto Painters into one of the league’s most disciplined and well-coached squads.
“We spread out the responsibility, we got several guys helping out Aaron in the scoring.”
Aside from their defense, Rain or Shine’s ability to handle the ball also played a major role to their breakthrough triumph.
“We lost in the second half and I guess one of the reasons we lost two games is we just kept turning the ball over and giving them opportunities to get out in transition. So today we were able to manage some of our turnovers, especially in the second half,” Guiao added.
“When it’s a high-scoring game our chances of winning are better.”
Numbers showed how hard the Painters worked on both ends.
Import Aaron Fuller dropped a double-double performance with 26 points and 16 rebounds while four more Painters in Santi Santillan, Jhonard Clarito, Felix Lemetti and Rence Nocum also emerged with double-digits in scoring to underscore the team effort that Rain or Shine displayed in clinching the breakthrough victory
Santillan scored 20 points and grabbed six rebounds while Clarito had 15 points, four rebounds, three assists, and a steal. Lemetti scored 11 points and dished out two assists while Nocum had 10 points, four rebounds and an assist.
With rookie Caelan Tiongson still injured due to a partial hamstring tear, Guiao is happy seeing Clarito and veteran Gabe Norwood take up the responsibility of containing Hollis-Jefferson, who finished with 23 points.
“With the injury to Caelan (Tiongson), Jhonard and Gabe had to take care of our defensive assignments,” Guiao said.
“His (Clarito’s) energy is contagious. When you see him play that hard, it rubs off on his teammates.”