The Rain or Shine Elasto Painters bounced back in the 2019 Philippine Basketball Association Governors’ Cup with a hard-earned, 96-90, victory over the Columbian Dyip Sunday, September 22 at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
Rain or Shine import Joel Wright, rested the entire third quarter because of foul trouble, converted back-to-back layups to push the Elasto Painters to a 91-89 lead.
At the other end CJ Perez lost control of the ball after being double-teamed by Gabe Norwood and Ping Exciminiano.
The Elasto Painters then gave the ball back to Wright who drove to his right, past defender Khapri Alston, to convert a layup which hiked his team’s advantage to four, 93-89, with just 14 seconds left to play.
Wright would add a free throw to push the Elasto Painters away beyond recall, 94-90.
The Dyip (1 win, 1 loss) and the Elasto Painters (1-1) thus landed into a tie behind the NLEX Road Warriors (1-0), Meralco Bolts (1-0) and North Port Batang Pier (1-0).
The other teams include the Magnolia Hotshots Pambansang Manok (0-1), the Phoenix Fuel Masters (0-1) and Alaska Aces (0-1). San Miguel Beermen, TNT KaTropa and Blackwater Elite have not yet played. Barangay Ginebra San Miguel is playing its first game against Alaska as of press time.
Rain or Shine guard Ed Daquioag drove hard to the hoop then issued a behind-the-back pass at the last second to Wright who slammed the ball into the hoop.
Wright would return the favor when he led a fastbreak attack then issued a drop pass to Daquioag who made the layup to peg the count at 74-68, as the Elasto Painters started to pull away early in the fourth.
The Dyip trailed big early in the game but relied on a second quarter explosion to tie the count, 44-all at halftime.
Jewel Ponferada deflected the ball, sprinted the length of the court, then tapped the ball back to teammate Daquioag who converted the layup to push Rain or Shine to a 66-62 lead. Glenn Khobuntin split his charities to cut the Rain or Shine lead after three quarters to three, 66-63.