ADVERTISEMENT

Manila Bulletin

Sports

Basketball

NLEX rips Rain or Shine, stays on track for playoff spot

Sports | Basketball

NLEX rips Rain or Shine, stays on track for playoff spot

By Jeremiah Sevilla

Jericho Cruz of NLEX drives to the basket against Jewel Ponferada. (PBA Images)

SMART CLARK GIGA CITY--NLEX rode the hot handsÂ of Jericho Cruz to pull off a massive 94-74 victory against Rain or Shine for its first back-to-back wins in the PBA Philippine Cup on Wednesday here.Â

Cruz scattered away 12 of his 17 points in the pivotal fourth quarter as the Road Warriors cruised to a second straight triumph following their 109-98 stunner over the TNT Tropang Giga last week.

After a slow start in the bubble, NLEX is now 3-5 and remains in the race to the playoffs, thanks to a change in mentality applied by coach Yeng Guiao.

"I really took the pressure off the players. Sabi ko, ang gusto lang natin gawin dito parang nasa training camp lang tayo," said Guiao.

"Dati pressured na pressured kami manalo eh wala naman sa kondisyon nung una. I think that compounded our problems. But after a while, 'yun nga sabi ko relax lang tayo, parang training camp na lang 'to, saka na lang natin ayusin 'yung sistema," he added.

"It's working for us. I hope it's not too late."

Kevin Alas topscored with 18 points to go with six rebounds and two assists while JR QuiÃ±ahan chipped in 13 markers and six boards.

Rey Nambatac had 15 points and Jewel Ponferada had 10 markers for the Elasto Painters, who slipped to 4-2.

The scores:

NLEX 94 -- Alas 18, Cruz 17, QuiÃ±ahan 13, Soyud 9, Miranda 8, Ravena 7, Semerad 7, Paniamogan 5, Galanza 5, Varilla 3, McAloney 2, Ayonayon 0.

RAIN OR SHINE 74 -- Nambatac 15, Ponferada 10, Norwood 7, Rivero 7, Rosales 7, Torres 7, Belga 7, Mocon 5, Borboran 5, Wong 3, Onwubere 1, Tolentino 0, Yap 0, Doliguez 0, AraÃ±a 0.
Quarters: 24-18, 42-39, 64-57, 94-74

Related Tags

NLEX Road Warriors PBA bubble Angeles University Foundation PBA Philippine Cup Rain or Shine Elasto Painters

ADVERTISEMENT

.most-popular .layout-ratio{ padding-bottom: 79.13%; } @media (min-width: 768px) and (max-width: 1024px) { .widget-title { font-size: 15px !important; } }

.most-popular .layout-ratio{ padding-bottom: 79.13%; } @media (min-width: 768px) and (max-width: 1024px) { .widget-title { font-size: 15px !important; } }

.most-popular .layout-ratio{ padding-bottom: 79.13%; } @media (min-width: 768px) and (max-width: 1024px) { .widget-title { font-size: 15px !important; } }

.mb-article-details { position: relative; } .mb-article-details .article-body-preview, .mb-article-details .article-body-summary{ font-size: 17px; line-height: 30px; font-family: "Libre Caslon Text", serif; color: #000; } .mb-article-details .article-body-preview iframe , .mb-article-details .article-body-summary iframe{ width: 100%; margin: auto; } .read-more-background { background: linear-gradient(180deg, color(display-p3 1.000 1.000 1.000 / 0) 13.75%, color(display-p3 1.000 1.000 1.000 / 0.8) 30.79%, color(display-p3 1.000 1.000 1.000) 72.5%); position: absolute; height: 200px; width: 100%; bottom: 0; display: flex; justify-content: center; align-items: center; padding: 0; } .read-more-background a{ color: #000; } .read-more-btn { padding: 17px 45px; font-family: Inter; font-weight: 700; font-size: 18px; line-height: 16px; text-align: center; vertical-align: middle; border: 1px solid black; background-color: white; } .hidden { display: none; }

{{ item.section_name }}

{{ item.title }}

{{ item.subtitle }}

Read More

function initializeAllSwipers() { // Get all hidden inputs with cms_article_id document.querySelectorAll('[id^="cms_article_id_"]').forEach(function (input) { const cmsArticleId = input.value; const articleSelector = '#article-' + cmsArticleId + ' .body_images'; const swiperElement = document.querySelector(articleSelector); if (swiperElement && !swiperElement.classList.contains('swiper-initialized')) { new Swiper(articleSelector, { loop: true, pagination: false, navigation: { nextEl: '#article-' + cmsArticleId + ' .swiper-button-next', prevEl: '#article-' + cmsArticleId + ' .swiper-button-prev', }, }); } }); } setTimeout(initializeAllSwipers, 3000); const intersectionObserver = new IntersectionObserver( (entries) => { entries.forEach((entry) => { if (entry.isIntersecting) { const newUrl = entry.target.getAttribute("data-url"); if (newUrl) { history.pushState(null, null, newUrl); let article = entry.target; // Extract metadata const author = article.querySelector('.author-section').textContent.replace('By', '').trim(); const section = article.querySelector('.section-info ').textContent.replace(' ', ' '); const title = article.querySelector('.article-title h1').textContent; // Parse URL for Chartbeat path format const parsedUrl = new URL(newUrl, window.location.origin); const cleanUrl = parsedUrl.host + parsedUrl.pathname; // Update Chartbeat configuration if (typeof window._sf_async_config !== 'undefined') { window._sf_async_config.path = cleanUrl; window._sf_async_config.sections = section; window._sf_async_config.authors = author; } // Track virtual page view with Chartbeat if (typeof pSUPERFLY !== 'undefined' && typeof pSUPERFLY.virtualPage === 'function') { try { pSUPERFLY.virtualPage({ path: cleanUrl, title: title, sections: section, authors: author }); } catch (error) { console.error('ping error', error); } } // Optional: Update document title if (title && title !== document.title) { document.title = title; } } } }); }, { threshold: 0.1 } ); function showArticleBody(button) { const article = button.closest("article"); const summary = article.querySelector(".article-body-summary"); const body = article.querySelector(".article-body-preview"); const readMoreSection = article.querySelector(".read-more-background"); // Hide summary and read-more section summary.style.display = "none"; readMoreSection.style.display = "none"; // Show the full article body body.classList.remove("hidden"); } document.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded", () => { let loadCount = 0; // Track how many times articles are loaded const offset = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]; // Offset values const currentUrl = window.location.pathname.substring(1); let isLoading = false; // Prevent multiple calls if (!currentUrl) { console.log("Current URL is invalid."); return; } const sentinel = document.getElementById("load-more-sentinel"); if (!sentinel) { console.log("Sentinel element not found."); return; } function isSentinelVisible() { const rect = sentinel.getBoundingClientRect(); return ( rect.top < window.innerHeight && rect.bottom >= 0 ); } function onScroll() { if (isLoading) return; if (isSentinelVisible()) { if (loadCount >= offset.length) { console.log("Maximum load attempts reached."); window.removeEventListener("scroll", onScroll); return; } isLoading = true; const currentOffset = offset[loadCount]; window.loadMoreItems().then(() => { let article = document.querySelector('#widget_1690 > div:nth-last-of-type(2) article'); intersectionObserver.observe(article) loadCount++; }).catch(error => { console.error("Error loading more items:", error); }).finally(() => { isLoading = false; }); } } window.addEventListener("scroll", onScroll); });

Join Our Newsletters

Sign up by email to receive news.

© 2025 Manila Bulletin The Nation's Leading Newspaper. All Rights Reserved.