Rain or Shine gains 1-0 semis lead over Petron, rolls to 9th straight win

Alex Cabagnot of Petron (white) vs Paul Lee of Rain or Shine (dark). PBA IMAGE by Nuki Sabio

MANILA, Philippines—Flourishing in the open court, Rain or Shine outpaced Petron Blaze to a masterful 103-95 win to gain a 1-0 headstart in their best-of-seven semifinals series in the 2014 PBA Philippine Cup Monday night at the Mall of Asia Arena.

The Elasto Painters, who have not lost in over a month, fanned their franchise-best winning streak to nine games.

“We did good defensively. This is a powerhouse team and it’s just really the effort and the desire of the boys to win that got us the first win,” said ROS head coach Yeng Guiao. But it’s only the first game so it’s not over. We need three more wins and that’s not going to be easy against Petron.”

“This is what we want it played. We want it fast, we want it open court, we know Petron plays the open court well but I feel that with our rotation we can sustain it a lot longer perhaps for seven games if need be, so we’re ready to play a long series and we’re ready to play a fast, furious play and we’ll see what happens,” Guiao added.

Third year guard Paul Lee led the way with 18 points, 14 in the second half, for Rain or Shine, which went on a 13-1 run midway through the second period and never looked back.

The Boosters drew at least 20 points from three players but June Mar Fajardo, Arwind Santos and Marcio Lassiter alone won’t cut it against a surging Painters side, who had 24 points off their opponents 25 turnovers.

Petron’s big men carried much of the load with Fajardo and Santos combining for 43 points, 32 rebounds and six blocks while Marcio Lassiter had 20 points off-the-bench but Alex Cabagnot and Chris Lutz had just four points apiece.

Lutz didn’t score until the final minute where ROS appeared to have wrapped the game up.

Jervy Cruz added 15 points while Beau Belga and Ryan Araña contributed 11 and 10 points, respectively.

The Painters missed the services of JR Quiñahan due to a swelling on his knee but Guiao expects his big man to be “okay” for next game.

“Beau did an excellent job on June Mar with his teammates helping out but we cannot do that without JR for six or seven games if that’s what’s necessary so we really need JR next game,” Guiao said.