E-Painters still alive; Beermen up
Rain or Shine capped a wacky week in the PBA Governors’ Cup eliminations by upending sure top four qualifier Barangay Ginebra in Lucena City, a day after San Miguel Beer showed its meanest form to end a rare three-game slide.
Jewel Ponferada ably filled up the role abandoned by the missing Rey Almazan and Terrence Watson outshone the celebrated Justin Brownlee as the Elasto Painters finally broke into the win column in their fifth game with a 104-97 decision of the erstwhile pacesetting Gin Kings on Saturday.
The Beermen earlier revived their faint hopes of still crashing the elite group of four after the eliminations with a 117-100 rout of the Phoenix Fuel Masters, who had looked all too powerful in a 123-97 blasting of the NLEX Road Warriors just two days ago.
With Magnolia proving just too good for Blackwater, 133-99, also Wednesday, the Hotshots found themselves on top of the heap with six wins against a loss as the Kings fell to second at 7-2 following the breakthrough win that kept the Painters alive.
Almazan, one of several Rain or Shine stars who served as nucleus of the national five that placed fifth in the recent Asian Games in Indonesia, was absent for the third straight game against Ginebra and his whereabouts were unknown.
But coach Caloy Garcia found a surprise gunner in Ponferada, who finished with 18 points behind the team-high 29 of Watson. Derick Ahanmisi and Gabe Norwood helped seal the win after Ginebra, which trailed by 19 points several times in the third period, moved within four at 97-101 in the final minute.
Brownlee topscored for Ginebra with 23 but Japeth Aguilar, who matched Justin’s 31 points when the Kings routed the Meralco Bolts, 111-105, in their last game, could score only seven. Greg Slaughter and Sol Mercado, who have reportedly recovered from separate injuries, showed up in uniform but stayed in the Ginebra bench throughout.
With Magnolia now in a strong position to join Ginebra among the top four qualifiers that will earn twice-to-beat bonus in the quarterfinals, at least six teams still have a shot at the two other premium slots.
Blackwater is running third at 6-2 followed by Alaska
(5-2), Phoenix (6-3), TNT
KaTropa (4-4), NLEX (4-5) and SMB (3-4).
San Miguel will need a sweep of its last four games against TNT KaTropa, NorthPort, Rain or Shine and Meralco but officials continue to hope reigning league MVP June Mar Fajardo, out with a foot injury, would be around by then.
