Red-hot Rain or Shine ousts GlobalPort, nails 1st semis slot

RR Garcia of GlobalPort (light) vs Beau Belga and Larry Rodriguez of Rain or Shine (dark). Nuki Sabio/PBA

MANILA, Philippines—Rain or Shine nailed the first semifinals slot after knocking off GlobalPort, 106-96, in the 2014 PLDT MyDSL Philippine Cup Wednesday at the Mall of Asia Arena.

Beau Belga drained a big 3-pointer that stopped the Batang Pier’s end-game run and extended the Elasto Painters’ lead to five, 101-96, with only 40.5 seconds left.

“GlobalPort out up a tough fight. They kept coming back and we couldn’t put them away,” said ROS head coach Yeng Guiao, whose squad led and blew a 15-point lead twice.

“We kept our streak but we don’t really want to focus on that. We want to focus our preparations for the semifinals,” added Guiao after his team fanned its franchise-best winning streak to eight games.

Belga finished with 17 points on three-of-four shooting from long range and had six rebounds and four steals.

The Painters will face the winner of the Petron Blaze and Barako Bull series where the Boosters are up, 1-0, in a best-of-three duel.

Rookie Terrence Romeo led GlobalPort, which played minus star forward Jay Washington due to a foot injury, with 23 points but only had four points in the second half and was scoreless in the fourth quarter.

GlobalPort moved to within two, 96-98, on a reverse by reserve guard Rudy Lingganay with still 3:21 remaining but Rain or Shine made stops and Belga came through down the stretch to hang on.

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