(From PBA)
Rain or Shine showed some character down the stretch and the Elasto Painters subdued a courageous effort from James Penny to beat Coca-Cola, 91-80, Friday night in the PBA Fiesta Conference at the Arenata Coliseum.
Jay-R Reyes, Eddie Laure and Sol Mercado anchored a 12-8 opening salvo by ROS in the fourth quarter that stretched their lead to 77-67 and took away the momentum from the rallying Tigers.
“I thought tonight we showed some character,” said RoS coach Caloy Garcia.
Their third quarter meltdown brought back memories of last Saturday’ game where the Elasto Painters blew a 17-point third quarter and went on lose, 98-100, against the Barangay Ginebra Kings in Victorias City.
“It feels good to bounce back,” Garcia said. “ I felt Coca-Cola was still tired coming from its tough match against B-Meg Derby Ace and we exploited on it.”
The win was the third in five games for Rain or Shine which drew double digit scoring from four of its starters.
Jai Lewis showed the way for RoS with 19 points and 13 rebounds while Mercado had 17 which went with his three assists and same number of steals. Reyes accounted for 14 points and six assists and Gabe Norwood scored 13 and five assists.
Penny, his right eyebrow swollen and painful from a cut suffered in their previous win over the Llamados, took charge in the third quarter. And in a span of seven minutes Coca-Cola had trimmed a 17-point deficit to just four and the Tigers had another win within their grasp.
Well, almost.
Coca-Cola picked up its second defeat in six games.
Coca-Cola coach Bo Perasol said his troops experienced some mental disruption coming into the game.
“We know James (Penny) is going to play today. So we came into the game with the thought of just going through the motion because we’re going to lose anyway.
“Then James suited up and we thought James is gonna bail us out. Despite what he went through Wednesday, James played so well but he couldn’t do it alone,” Perasol said.
Penny came into the game with five minutes left in the opening quarter wearing a plastic mask to protect his wound. But he appeared uncomfortable with it, shooting just 1 of 5 in the first half.
The versatile Coca-Cola import played without the protective mask in the second half then erupted with 19 points in the third quarter to bring back the Tigers back into the game.
Penny’s towering slam off a pass by David pulled the Tigers to within 49-53 with 4:29 left in the period.
Despite the injury, Penny still led all scorers with 34 points and had 10 rebounds for his sixth consecutive double-double.
Dennis Espino came off the bench to scored 11 points but David managed just 10 points on a 3 of 6 shooting and committed six turnovers. As a team, the Tigers accounted for 21 errors, six more than their opponents.
The two teams finished the first quarter tied at 19-all. But the Tigers shot just 23 percent (4 of 17) and had seven turnovers in the second quarter enabling RoS to break the game wide open.
A tip-in by Norwood with 5:19 to play in the second quarter gave RoS the first of its several 17 point leads in the period. The Elasto Painters took the half, 47-30. (DBC)
The scores:
Rain or Shine 91 – Lewis 19, Mercado 17, Reyes 14, Norwood 13, Arana 8, Chan 6, Laure 6, Ibanes 5, Hrabak 3, Tang 0, Salangsang 0.
Coca-Cola 80 – Penny 34, Espino 11, David 10, Cruz 7, Lanete 6, Rodriguez 4, Taulava 4, Bono 2, Macapagal 2, Allera 0, Ross 0, Rizada 0, Gonzales 0.
Quarterscores: 19-19, 47-30, 65-59, 91-80
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment