Rain or Shine dumps Phoenix for 2-2 record

Rain or Shine’s Eduard Daquioag. Photo by Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net

Rain or Shine raced to a commanding lead and never looked back en route to a 120-99 whipping of Phoenix in the 2018 PBA Philippine Cup Wednesday at Smart Araneta Coliseum.

The Elasto Painters went on a 35-6 blast to take a 39-11 lead in the first quarter and extended it to as much as 39 points in the third period as the Fuel Masters just didn’t show up right from the opening tip.

“I challenged them before the game that I want them to be a running team from the beginning,”said ROS head coach Caloy Garcia after his squad evened its record to 2-2.

Ed Daquioag scored a game-high 21 points on 7-of-10 shooting from the field in less than 22 minutes while James Yap broke out of his shooting slump and explode for 20 points, hitting eight of his 10 shots to lead the Elasto Painters.

“I think this is the best game I’ve seen him play,” Garcia said of Daquioag.

Daquioag’s night though was cut short after hurting himself on a drive against Phoenix rookie Jason Perkins at the 7:33 mark of the third quarter. He also collected five rebounds and five assists.

It was a dominant win for the Painters despite playing without their star center Raymond Almazan.

Garcia said it was his decision not to play Almazan, who did not attend team practice the past couple of days.

“Actually, after the loss against Global, [we got into a commotion] but I think everything’s good right now,” he revealed.

Garcia said he called out Almazan after his poor outing in a 78-70 loss to GlobalPort on Friday.

The Painters shot 55% from the field and had 31 assists.

Matthew Wright and Jason Perkins paced the Fuel Masters (2-2) with 17 points apiece.