PBA: Rain or Shine ends slump, drubs NLEX

Antoine Wright vs Al Thornton. Photo by Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net

Rain or Shine took a big lead early en route to a drubbing of NLEX, 121-94, to end a three-game slide in the 2016 PBA Commissioner’s Cup Friday at Smart Araneta Colieum.

The Elasto Painters had seven players in double figures led by Antoine Wright’s 20 points.

“We got our rhythm back. I hope it’s not too late,” said ROS head coach Yeng Guiao. “I hope we can be consistent with it. We got our running game back, we got our passing game back, we also got our rebounding game back but we’re still behind in the standings,”

“At least coming into this game, our simple objective was just to break the losing streak. Just win one and then we can talk about the next. We achieved our objective,” Guiao said, whose team had 33 assists.

The Painters zoomed to a 23-8 lead in the first quarter and led by as much as 29.

Wright also had nine rebounds, seven assists and two steals and he was also commended by Guiao for limiting NLEX import Al Thornton throughout the game.

Thornton, who is averaging 35.3 points per game, was held to his lowest output with 19 points.

Jewel Ponferrada had 15 points, Raymond Almazan added 14 while Jericho Cruz, JR Quiñahan and Jeff Chan scored 12 apiece for Rain or Shine, which climbed to 2-3.

The Road Warriors dropped their second straight game and fell to 2-3.