Rain or Shine Elasto Painter vs B-meg Derby Llmados

MANILA, Philippines – Down and nearly out a few days ago, B-Meg survived a second straight do-or-die game and lived to play one final game on Sunday with a chance to pull off a giant feat.

The Llamados continued to play above tremendous pressure and thwarted the Rain or Shine Elasto Painters, 97-81, again tonight to force a deciding Game Seven in their PBA Governors Cup titular showdown.

James Yap and his teammates sustained the momentum of their Game Five victory, hardly giving the Elasto Painters a chance in a dominating performance cheered on by the predominantly B-Meg crowd of nearly 14,000 at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

A black spat was the commotion that happened with the two teams heading to their locker rooms after the game. Rain or Shine coach Yeng Guiao figured in a verbal tussle with B-Meg team manager Alvin Patrimonio and injured Llamado forward Joe Devance.

Keeping Rain or Shine from closing out the series, the Llamados and the Elasto Painters are now on equal footing, fighting out for all the marbles at 6 p.m. on Sunday also at the Big Dome.

Curiously, the Llamados are playing a second Game Seven in the last two tournaments.

B-Meg could score rare back-to-back championships and, at the same time, be the first team in over two decades to win a crown coming from a 1-3 hole in a best-of-seven series.

“We win this game and we lose the next, we might as well lose tonight. Our third win doesn’t mean anything if we don’t go out to win Sunday,” said B-Meg coach Tim Cone.

Cone gave both teams equal chances of winning Game Seven while RoS coach Yeng Guiao kept a positive outlook despite blowing their first two cracks at wrapping up the series.

“The advantage of going up 3-1 is you can lose two games, make adjustments and learn from your mistake. That’s the luxury we have and we take full advantage of that,” said Guiao.

The Llamados dominated the boards, 56-33, and drew firepower from both their backcourt and frontcourt players as they pulled through in a third knockout match in the conference and sixth in the season.

Yap followed up his 30-point showing Wednesday with a near double-double with 20 points and nine rebounds while Blakely churned out another double-double numbers with 19 markers and 15 boards.

PJ Simon, Jonas Villanueva, Mark Barroca and Yancy de Ocampo contributed at least eight points each for the Llamados who played their best game in the series, leading by as many as 24 at 92-68.

“We played a real good game tonight. We played the way we wanted to play and they missed shots they normally make,” said Cone.

“The lead mushroomed to 24, but that’s not an indication of how Game Seven is going to be,” Cone added.

Picking up from where they left off in Game Five, the Llamados set the pace early, taking two 14-point spreads in the first half at 30-16 and 42-28.

Missing layups and short stabs didn’t help the Elasto Painters, making only 30 points in the first half on a woeful 12-of-40 field shooting.

The Elasto Painters started flat with their starting unit of Jamelle Cornley, Jeff Chan, Gabe Norwood, Beau Belga and Ryan Arana.

Norwood’s struggle continued from the last game, going 0-of-5 from the field in the first half of this contest. On Wednesday, the former top rookie went scoreless in 37 minutes of action.