ROS import guarantees he’ll stop SMB’s Fajardo in semis

Rain or Shine import Pierre Henderson-Niles drives in between Ginebra’s Japeth Aguilar and Mark Caguioa during the two team’s quarterfinals series. PBA IMAGES

Beau Belga was standing side-by-side with Pierre Henderson Niles and the wide-bodied center never looked so small.

One of the reasons why Rain or Shine brought in the hulking import is to address the team’s problem with matching up against the league’s giants.

The Elasto Painters are convinced they’ve found the solution and on Sunday, when they face a perennial tormentor in San Miguel Beer in Game 1 of their best-of-five semifinals series, they’re about to find out if they’re right.

But for Henderson-Niles, there’s no need for any validation. On the eve of his head-to-head with the Beermen’s reigning two-time MVP June Mar Fajardo, Henderson-Niles has guaranteed he’s going to shut down the most dominant Filipino player today.

“Hell yeah,” said Henderson-Niles, assuring that he’s going to cancel out Fajardo in their duel. “Yes.”

The former Memphis Tiger isn’t afraid of impending matchup with the 6-foot-10 Fajardo.

If anything, it’s Fajardo and the rest of the Beermen who should be scared.

“Not this year, not this year,” he said when a reporter brought up the two teams’ semifinals history the past two conferences where the Beermen came out victorious. “We got another big man. He gotta guard me too. It’s hard guarding me. I know I can guard any player in the league. So his (Fajardo) thing, he’s got to guard me so let’s see how’s that going to turn out.

“That’s all I’ve been hearing. They haven’t won in the past two [conferences] or something like that. This [conference] is a different [conference]. We got a better team, better big man, stronger big man so we just gonna see what’s going to happen tomorrow at 5 ‘o clock.”

The arrival of Henderson-Niles gave the Painters reasons not to fear the Beermen and Fajardo.

For the past couple of conferences, Rain or Shine had found itself tumbling out of the semifinals after getting bullied by San Miguel.

This time could be different. Paul Lee and Raymond Almazan, two key players, who were hobbled by injuries when Painters lost in six games in the semis to the Beermen in this year’s Philippine Cup, feel the result will be different.

With a 6-foot-8, 300-pound center in tow, the mood during the team’s practice on a hot and humid Saturday afternoon was light, players were loose and the coaches’ body language exude confidence.

“They (San Miguel) are going to have a problem,” Henderson-Niles said. “They gotta worry about me too. I ain’t worrying about them, they gotta worry about me.”