PBA: Rain or Shine zooms past Terrafirma

Rain or Shine Elastopainters’ Beau Belga in the PBA Philippine Cup. — PBA IMAGES

MANILA, Philippines— Rain or Shine tightened its play in the third period and then kept it together the rest of the way to roll past Terrafirma, 116-104, in the PBA Philippine Cup on Saturday.

A balanced attack had the Painters controlling the contest at Caloocan Sports Complex early. The blue-collar squad then surged into double-digit leads in the final two quarters on the way to capturing their fourth straight win following a shaky start to open the conference.

Yeng Guiao’s charges thus improved to 4-4 in the race, further complicating the situation for the teams in the middle of the pack.

SCHEDULE: 2024 PBA Philippine Cup

Beau Belga, who was recently adjudged by the PBA Press Corps as its Player of the Week, delivered 19 points while leading six other teammates who finished with double-digit scores.

Andrei Caracut was among those other productive Painters, chipping in 17 points that went with 10 assists, helping Rain or Shine to leads as big as 16 points.

Top rookie pick Stephen Holt and Juami Tiongson had 20 points each for Terrafirma. Javi Gomez de Liaño chipped in 18 more off the bench, but their performance wasn’t good enough to help the squad recover from a narrow loss to powerhouse San Miguel Beer earlier this week.

The Dyip dropped to a 4-5 mark, with NorthPort and Magnolia left in its schedule.

Rain or Shine, for its part, is also scheduled to play the same two clubs before wrapping its elimination round campaign against NLEX.

The Scores:

RAIN OR SHINE 116 – Belga 19, Caracut 17, Clarito 16, Santillan 15, Borboran 13, Belo 11, Mamuyac 10, Demusis 6, Ildefonso 6, Asistio 3, Nocum 0.

TERRAFIRMA 104 – Holt 20, Tiongson 20, Gomez de Liano 18, Go 13, Cahilig 9, Camson 9, Calvo 4, Alolino 4, Ramos 3, Carino 3, Sangalang 1, Mina 0.

Quarterscores: 34-32, 65-61, 92-82, 116-104.