Rain or Shine beats San Miguel, ties series at 1-1
JAMES Yap and Reggie Johnson provided the scoring punch at crunch time as Rain or Shine bested Barangay Ginebra San Miguel, 109-100, on Thursday to level their best-of-five semifinals series to 1-1 in Game 2 of the Philippine Basketball Association Season 43 Commissioner’s Cup at the Araneta Coliseum.
Down 97-100 in the last 3:25 remaining, the Elasto Painters unleashed a crippling 12-0 blast anchored on the big plays of Yap and Johnson late in the game, building a 109-100 lead in the last 35 seconds to seal the victory as the Gin Kings were scoreless.
“I’m really proud of my players right now. They came out and played hard,” said Rain or Shine coach Caloy Garcia. “We were down again in the first quarter, but we didn’t give up. In the end, we won it because we hit the bigger shots. We played great defense in the last three minutes.”
Johnson piled up 20 of his 25 points in the second half in addition to his 20 rebounds, eight assists and three blocks while James Yap added 18 points to lead the Elasto Painters. Gabe Norwood finished with 12 points, while Chris Tiu and Raymond Almazan contributed 11 and 10 points, respectively, also for Rain or Shine.
Justin Brownlee scored 29 points and grabbed 12 rebounds to lead the Gin Kings.
After losing Game 1 (89-102), the Elasto Painters and the Gin Kings got an extra dayoff to prepare.
Game 3 is set on Saturday at the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City.
Scores:
Rain or Shine 109 – Johnson 25, Yap 18, Norwood 12, Tiu 11, Almazan 10, Borboran 9, Daquioag 9, Nambatac 6, Belga 5, Ahanmisi 4, Ponferada 0, Washington 0.
Ginebra 100 – Brownlee 29, Slaughter 20, Tenorio 17, Thompson 14, Chan 8, Devance 5, Caguioa 4, Ferrer 3, Cruz 0, Mercado 0.
Quarters: 26-36, 57-57, 87-87, 109-100.
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