Rain or Shine continued to display a sense of urgency as it denied Terrafirma, 97-82, to stay in hunt for the quarterfinals seat in the 2022 PBA Philippine Cup at the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay on Saturday, July 16.
Playing without key players Gabe Norwood, Mike Nieto and Beau Belga due to safety protocols, the Elasto Painters bench led by Leonard Santillan and Anton Asistio stepped up and used a strong first half to create the sizeable margin it managed to protect until the final buzzer and improve to a 4-6 record in the standings.
Rain or Shine remained outside the playoff picture, currently at the ninth spot but put itself just half a game behind No. 8 team Converge which boasts a 4-5 win-loss slate.
Asistio and Andrei Caracut connived in the first half breakaway for the Elasto Painters finishing with 14 points each while Santillan held the fort in Belga’s absence with 13 points and eight rebounds. Shaun Ildefonso also provided solid contributions with 10 points.
“Today was a great game for our third team guys to get quality minutes and develop that next man-up mentality for us so we’re extremely happy with the position we’re in. We got one more, a really tough game against Magnolia come Wednesday and it’s do-or-die for us really,” said Rain or Shine head coach Chris Gavina.
Aldrech Ramos led the also-ran Dyip with 21 points but was still not enough to power his team to its breakthrough win in the all-Filipino Cup.
Terrafirma started out flat in the game allowing Rain or Shine to race to an early 14-6 lead. Santillan and Asistio then went on a tear scoring 16 of the E-Painters 33 points against the Dyip’s 18 points in the opening frame.
ROS kept its foot on the gas pedal in the second frame building the biggest lead at 30, 54-24. Terrafirma showed some signs of life in the third frame cutting the lead down to 15 behind Ramos and Eric Camson but just couldn’t find the extra push to break into the double-digit barrier ROS had put up.
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