Furious rally

Photo by Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net

Pido Jarencio was so excited that he couldn’t stop talking when he faced the press on Wednesday night—or asking questions when he was supposed to do the answering.

“Did you see what my players just did?” he asked reporters in Filipino. “They never gave up. We were down by 20 points in the third quarter and they just kept on playing, kept on fighting. I’m so excited.”

He had every reason to be, after NorthPort gutted out a 107-105 overtime win over Rain or Shine with just eight healthy men at Mall of Asia Arena to reclaim a piece of the PBA Commissioner’s Cup lead and put its talkative coach in a position to guide the franchise to a place it has never been before.

“With that win, we can now shoot for No. 1 [ranking after the eliminations],” Jarencio told the Inquirer on his way back to the dugout, where his players were still celebrating along with other members of his coaching staff, who Jarencio said could outnumber his healthy players.

Three-point binge

The Batang Pier went to the three-point shot as their bread-and-butter play—by design—in order to conserve energy, to charge back from 25 points down—not 20 as Jarencio thought—and from eight points behind in the final 62 seconds of regulation.

Mo Tautuaa hit five triples on the way to a career-high 34 points, rookie Robert Bolick played close to 53 minutes and forged overtime at 100-all with his second triple and the rest of the team did just about enough to snap the Elasto Painters’ streak at two games and doom Rain or Shine to a 2-3 card.

Jarencio is excited at his prospects of topping the eliminations since he survived the powerhouse teams that came early in his schedule.

Left for the Batang Pier in the eliminations are Phoenix Pulse, Columbian, Blackwater and Meralco, and Jarencio is oozing with confidence going into those games with manpower help coming starting Saturday against the Elite.

NorthPort traded away injured franchise player Stanley Pringle for three Barangay Ginebra reliables on Tuesday, and Sol Mercado, Kevin Ferrer and Jervy Cruz will practice with the Batang Pier starting Thursday to prepare for Blackwater.

“I won’t have a problem with those guys—they all came from coach Tim (Cone) so they are very disciplined,” Jarencio said. “It’s just a matter of getting them accustomed to the [NorthPort] system.”

Prince Ibeh had 21 rebounds, and nine points, and Tautuaa completed a double-double with 11 boards.

Bolick finished with 22 points that went with nine assists and six rebounds, Sean Anthony had 16 points and eight boards and Paolo Taha accounted for 12 for the Batang Pier.

Denzel Bowles had 41 points for the Painters, but he did miss two free throws in the dying seconds of regulation which could have clinched it and then failed to call a timeout inside the last six seconds to set up a potential game-winning play.

Javee Mocon added 16 points for the Elasto Painters.