Adrian Nocum put on a scoring clinic in a fourth quarter explosion to banner Rain or Shine’s 114-104 victory over Converge that forged a do-or-die match in the best-of-three Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Commissioner’s Cup quarterfinals Friday night at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium.
The gutsy guard scored 16 of his 28 markers in the final period including eight straight points highlighted by back-to-back triples that kept the FiberXers at bay in the closing stretch of the pivotal Game 2.
Nocum shot 11-of-17 from the field and spiked his stats with four rebounds, three assists and three steals for the Elasto Painters.
Game 3 is on Sunday at the Ynares Center in Antipolo where the winner will play second seed TNT in the best-of-seven semifinals later this month.
Rain or Shine effectively took the taller Converge out of its comfort zone with a better defensive effort.
“We did a better job defensively today,” Elasto Painters coach Yeng Guiao after his squad recovered from a 118-130 loss in Game 1 last Wednesday.
“The last time we played them, I think (Cheick) Diallo was about 67 percent (from the field). Justine Arana was 92 percent from the field. Balti (Justine Baltazar) was 100 percent, he didn’t miss a shot. We look at those stats and their efficiency around the basket was just incredible almost 95 percent on the average,” he added.
“I think that was the first thing we needed to address. We made some defensive adjustments to our matchups. We wanted to protect the paint a little bit more and get more rebounds. We lost Game 1 because they dominated us inside.”
Rain or Shine import Deon Thompson kept himself in the match and avoided the same predicament of fouling out early in the third quarter of Game 1.
He finished with 28 points and 18 rebounds while Jhonard Clarito and Anton Asistio got 19 and 10 markers, respectively, for the Elasto Painters.
Rain or Shine clawed its way out of a 12-point deficit in the opening canto and outscored Converge, 34-27, in the third to enter the payoff period on top, 85-80.
Nocum hit back-to-back triples to push the Elasto Painters’ advantage to 110-98 with 2:58 left. Rain or Shine extended its lead to 114-107 with under two minutes remaining.
Jordan Heading had 29 points, seven rebounds and six assists to pace the FiberXers.
Alec Stockton had 20, Diallo scored 17 and grabbed 15 boards, while Arana and Schonny Winston posted 17 and 10 markers, respectively.
The scores:
RAIN OR SHINE (114) --- Thompson 28, Nocum 28, Clarito 19, Asistio 10, Caracut 7, Santillan 7, Tiongson 5, Datu 5, Malonzo 5, Belga 0
CONVERGE (104) –-- Heading 29, Stockton 20, Diallo 17, Arana 17, Winston 10, Santos 5, Baltazar 3, Nieto 3, Delos Santos 0, Garcia 0, Racal 0, Andrade 0
Quarters: 23-29, 51-53, 70-68, 114-104