MANILA, Philippines—Third time’s the charm for Rain or Shine Elasto Painters as they trumped Barako Bull Energy, 103-91, to notch their third straight win in the PBA Commissioner’s Cup on Friday evening at Smart-Araneta Coliseum.
Rain or Shine rode their win streak to second place as they tied Talk N’ Text with 5-2 win-loss cards.
Barako crashed to a four-way tie for third together with Purefoods, Globalport and Ginebra with 4-3 records.
Painters head coach Yeng Guiao said they wanted to go to the All Star break on a positive note so relaxing can feel a little better.
“It was important for us to get a win, we wanted this game so badly,” Guiao said. “We want to relax a little bit.”
Guiao and his team will go on a two-week break as part of the All Star festivities.
Rain or Shine put up a 20-point lead in the 6:31 mark of the third when Wayne Chism hit back-to-back threes to put the Painters up 70-50.
Barako managed to cut the deficit to single digits, 96-87, with 2:14 left in the fourth with Lanete cutting from the baseline to score on a layup.
Chism, however, got the touch from deep and nailed a booming three-pointer with 2:03 remaining, giving Rain or Shine the 99-87 lead.
Guiao said they wanted to draw out the 7-foot-1 Solomon Alabi out of the paint to allow their guards easy access to the basket.
“But we made our threes,” Guiao said.
He added that they wanted to run the game and up its tempo to negate the size advantage of Barako.
“We’re a lot quicker team with Wayne and we have more flexibility on offense,” Guiao said.
Wayne led all scorers with 32 points, including 7-of-13 from deep, to go along with seven boards.
Paul Lee added 16 while JR Quiñahan and Jeff Chan pitched in 12 and 11 points respectively.
Alabi led Barako with 23 points and 13 boards with JC Intal adding 19.
Lanete and Dave Marcelo had 14 and 11 points respectively for Barako.
The scores:
RAIN OR SHINE 103–Chism 32, Lee 16, Quinahan 12, Chan 11, Norwood 7, Cruz 7, Tang 6, Almazan 4, Uyloan 3, Belga 3, Arana 2, Ibanes 0, Teng 0
BARAKO 91–Alabi 23, Intal 19, Lanete 14, Marcelo 11, Mercado 9, Lastimosa 6, Garcia 4, Matias 3, Pascual 2, Chua 0, Hubalde 0, Salva 0, Paredes 0, Sorongon 0
Quarterscores: 30-27, 53-40, 77-62, 103-91