Rain or Shine may have fallen short but its head coach, Yeng Guiao, remains proud of its semifinal run in the Philippine Basketball Association Season 50 Commissioner’s Cup.
Guiao said they have nothing to be ashamed of as they bowed to a better team — Barangay Ginebra — in an emotional and action-packed best-of-seven semifinal series.
Playing in their fifth semifinal appearance in the past six conferences, the Elasto Painters fought hard before yielding a 107-118 loss in Game 6 of their semifinal encounter.
Jaylen Johnson delivered a solid performance, dropping 27 points and 14 rebounds while Gian Mamuyac and Adrian Nocum chipped in 25 and 16 markers, respectively, for the Elasto Painters, who were trounced by the heroics of Justin Brownlee and RJ Abarrientos in the final stretch.
Brownlee had 31 points and 15 rebounds while Abarrientos posted glowing numbers of 30 points, seven assists, six rebounds, three steals and a block as the Kings stood tall against the Elasto Painters ambition of forcing a sudden-death battle on Wednesday.
Despite falling short, Guiao has no regrets.
“I’m proud of what we’ve accomplished this conference,” said Guiao, whose wards started their campaign with seven straight wins before finishing the eliminations with a 9-3 win-loss record. Then, they beat San Miguel Beer in the quarterfinals to gain the chance to battle Ginebra in the Last Four.
“We made it all the way to the semifinals. We’ve lost a couple of players (Felix Lemetti and Luis Villegas) along the way, but we still put up a good fight against Ginebra.”
“Ginebra deserves to win the finals. They played with consistency in this series. They shot the ball well, especially from the three points. Justin Brownlee and RJ (Abarrientos) just carried them on their shoulders. We found it hard to really match up with those two guys.”