MANILA, Philippines — Rain or Shine scooped up a crucial win over erstwhile league leader NorthPort, 127-107, to rejoin a mad scramble for the two win-once playoffs bonuses in the PBA Commissioner’s Cup at the PhilSports Arena in Pasig last night.
Coming from two straight losses, the vengeful Elasto Painters barged back into strong contention in style on a blazing 33-18 start en route to a coast-to-coast win.
The troops of coach Yeng Guiao were never threatened from there on, leading by as many as 25 points to forge a logjam at third spot with idle Meralco, Ginebra and Eastern on similar 6-3 slates.
NorthPort fell to joint second with Converge at 7-3 with TNT emerging the new pacesetter in the bumper-to-bumper march to the Top Two entering the homestretch of the 13-team elims.
And ROS made sure to knock on that door behind an attack from all fronts with seven players racking up double figures led by import Deon Marshall Thompson’s 27 points, 11 rebounds, two assists and two blocks in only 29 minutes of play.
Adrian Nocum had a near triple-double of 16 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists, Santi Santillan added the same output while Andrei Caracut (13), Anton Asistio (12), Keith Datu (11) and Beau Belga (10) provided solid coverage.
Later, Magnolia (4-6) staved off a fiery fightback by Phoenix (3-6) and kept a flickering playoff hopes with a 110-104 win.
Zavier Lucero (25) and Mark Barroca (22) headlined the local crew while Ricardo Ratliffe collared 22 points, 19 rebounds and two blocks for the Hotshots, who need to win all their remaining matches against top teams Eastern and Meralco to keep their slim chance behind the eighth-running San Miguel Beer (4-4).