Rain or Shine Elastopainters’ Adrian Nocum during a PBA Governors’ Cup game. –PBA IMAGES
MANILA, Philippines–Heroes abounded for Rain or Shine on Tuesday night as the Elasto Painters outlasted NLEX in overtime, 123-114, to secure a quarterfinal spot in the PBA Governors’ Cup.
Sophomore Adrian Nocum scored seven of the ElastoPainters’ 13 points in the extra period at Ninoy Aquino Stadium to rebound from a 22-point beating at the hands of Barangay Ginebra last week and join San Miguel atop Group B play.
Anton Asistio, who was big early into the game, put the finishing touches on the win that coach Yeng Guiao earlier laid down as the club’s initial goal for the conference.
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Asistio finished with 25 points, while import Aaron Fuller had 23 points to go with 25 rebounds. Jhonard Clarito chipped in 15 more into the scoring effort to join Felix Lemetti’s 14 and Caelan Tiongson’s 11.
Nocum had 11.
NLEX was on pace to break its skid with replacement DeQuan Jones putting up 49 points and 11 rebounds, and Robert Bolick tallying a near-triple-double of 28 points, 11 rebounds and nine assists. But the Road Warriors sputtered when it mattered most, scoring only four points in overtime.
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Jong Uichico and his crew thus dropped to 3-5, with their playoff hopes hanging by a thread.
Rain or Shine plays San Miguel on Thursday in a highly-anticipated rematch. The Beermen prevailed in their last meeting on a June Mar Fajardo gamewinner.
NLEX, meanwhile, plays Phoenix next.