Painters flatten Bolts with megaton bombs

MANILA, Philippines - Rain or Shine launched long-range missiles – with a deadly 68 percent accuracy – as the Elasto Painters dished out yet another amazing performance, stinging the Meralco Bolts, 139-95, to regain solo lead in the PBA Philippine Cup at the Ynares Sports Center in Antipolo last night.

The Elasto Painters continued to amaze, establishing a number of records in an extra-sharp game netting them a fifth win against one loss in the season.

The Bolts were stopped in their tracks and stalled at 4-3.

“I haven’t seen a game like this in a long time. I don’t know what the guys have eaten,” said coach Yeng Guiao, himself amazed at their 22-of-32 three-point shooting that torched the Bolts.

Curiously, the Elasto Painters hit better from the three-point zone (68.8 percent) than from the two-point area (64.6 percent) and from the stripe (57.9 percent).

All but three Elasto Painters had three-point conversions as they narrowly missed the all-time record of 23 triples done by Talk n Text twice.

The Elasto Painters, however, rained down their three-pointers from the regular PBA distance of 22 feet while the Texters made theirs during the time when the league adopted the shorter Fiba line of 20.5 feet in 2007-2009.

Nonetheless, Rain or Shine set a number of records, including league all-time best three-point shooting percentage (.688) and franchise all-time biggest output and largest winning margin (44 points) in a game.

“It’s hard to explain how we’re able to do that. The whole team was in a zone,” said Guiao.

“I knew we had a good preparation for the game and we knew that they’re having a tough time handling our zone defense. But I still expected a tooth-and-nail game especially with Macmac Cardona and Sol Mercado back in their lineup,” Guiao added.

Ronnie Matias, Beau Belga and JR Quinahan set the tone early in combining for an unbelievable 5-of-5 three-point clip in the first quarter.

Ronjay Buenafe, Gabe Norwood, Jeff Chan and Jireh Ibanes took over with an 8-of-11 combined triples in the second quarter, and the Elasto Painters never ceased unloading bombs in the final half.

Gary David exploded with a career-best 42 points to check a personal two-game slump and get Powerade back on track with a 108-94 win over Petron Blaze in the nightcap.

Curiously, David delivered that huge output after being held down to seven points in their game versus B-Meg Wednesday. It was the first time in the last five conferences that the prolific scorer was limited to a single-digit number.

The scores:

First Game

Rain or Shine 139 – Buenafe 24, Chan 20, Lee 19, Belga 14, Cruz 10, Matias 10, Quinahan 10, Norwood 7, Rodriguez 7, Arana 6, Ibanes 5, Jaime 4, Uyloan 3.

Meralco 95 – Cardona 25, Omolon 13, Mercado 12, Espinas 12, Isip 9, Hugnatan 9, Laete 4, Faundo 3, Yee 3, Macapagal 3, Ballesteros 2, Taulava 0, Borboran 0.

Quarterscores: 33-20, 68-41, 106-64, 139-95

Second Game

Powerade 108 – David 42, Kramer 18, Lingganay 11, Lassiter 11, Calimag 9, Casio 4, Antonio 3, Vanlandingham 2, Crisano 2, Adducul 0.

Petron 94 – Santos 23, Cabagnot 22, Lutz 15, Ildefonso 9, Agustin 6, Sharma 6, Yeo 5, Miranda 4, Guevarra 2, Reyes 2, Doruelo 0, Baclao 0.

Quarterscores: 20-30, 48-47, 74-77, 108-94