MANILA, Philippines — Rain or Shine weathered a near-catastrophic fourth-quarter storm against NLEX and made the most of its second chance to pull through with the quarterfinal clincher.
With Adrian Nocum and Aaron Fuller as 1-2 punch in overtime, the Elasto Painters got the job done via a 123-114 verdict that sent them through to the PBA Governor’s Cup Last-8 at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium last night.
Nocum dropped seven of his 11 points in extra time to give ROS a 120-114 cushion after squandering a 12-point lead in regulation.
Fuller had three big-time offensive rebounds in OT on his way to a monster 25-rebound output. The Elasto Painters’ hard-working import banged in 23 markers, including a clutch putback in the windup, to back up Anton Asistio (25) in the scoring department.
Nocum and Fuller’s game-saving performances in extra time wouldn’t have been possible if not for the effort of Jhonard Clarito, whose follow-up off a Nocum miss tied it at 110-110 with 19.1 seconds left in the fourth period. Clarito finished with 15.
The winning result enabled ROS to not only get back on track after its awful 102-124 defeat to Ginebra last time but also hit its target of six wins through eight games in Group B.
“Most important thing tonight was gusto naming maka-six wins para makapasok sa quarterfinals,” said coach Yeng Guiao.
“We wanted to just try to win the game, overtime man yan, one point, 20 points. Importante manalo kami para maka-look forward sa playoffs. We accomplished it tonight.”
The Elasto Painters spoiled the explosive debut of NLEX’ new import DeQuan Jones, who hit them with 49 markers and the near-triple double effort of Robert Bolick, who punched in 28 markers, 11 boards and nine assists.
Later, led by Rondae Hollis-Jefferson’s 29-25 outing, TNT made it five in a row for a leading 7-1 card in Group A with an 84-82 decision over Magnolia (4-4).