Sol Mercado and JR Quinahan vs Gilbert Bulawan and Paul Artadi. PBA IMAGE by Nuki Sabio
MANILA, Philippines – Rain or Shine cruised past Meralco 106-81 Sunday night in the 38th PBA Philippine Cup at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
The Elasto Painters banked on a third-quarter surge to put the game away early, ripping the Bolts to shreds, as head coach Yeng Guiao was even left surprised.
“Meralco is one of the hottest teams in the league right now, I’m really surprised that we beat them in the manner we beat them. I was looking forward to a tight end-game struggle.”
Jireh Ibañes nearly matched his career-high with 23 points, 17 of which came in the second half. Ibañes also gave his team its biggest lead of the game at 33, 94-71, with 8:15 left.
Beau Belga added 16 on three-of-three shooting from downtown while Ryan Araña had 15.
As potent as ROS’ offense was, the E-Painters did their damage more on the defensive end, clamping down on the Bolts’ usual scorers.
“We did not let them get their usual confidence. It started with our defense and continued over to our offense,” said Guiao, whose team moved into a share with Alaska in second place at 5-2.
Mac Cardona had 20 points but most of his output came when the game was already decided.
Sol Mercado finished with nine points on a woeful three-of-14 from the field with four errors.
The Bolts fell to 4-3.