E-Painters strike at endgame, rip Dyip

MANILA, Philippines — Terrafirma put up its fiercest attempt at a breakthrough win yet. But Rain or Shine, determined to keep its streak, extinguished the Dyip threat with a strong finishing kick.

Locked in a roller-coaster contest featuring eight deadlocks and 18 lead changes, ROS unleashed a 26-17 closing barrage en route to a 124-112 victory in the PBA Commissioner’s Cup last night at the PhilSports Arena.

The Elasto Painters set the tone for this final breakaway with 13 unanswered points in a five-minute stretch that got them to a 117-108 cushion off a four-point deficit.

The winning result enabled the charges of coach Yeng Guiao to make it four in a row after dropping their opening assignment and move up to solo second behind NorthPort (6-1).

“We had a strong endgame; it was the finish, really,” said Guiao after escaping the upset axe from Terrafirma (0-6), which held a 12-point lead early.

“Hindi namin ma-stop ‘yung post plays nila so we tried to defend that with our import (Deon Thompson). We got the stops we needed at a crucial time so ‘yun ang susi, and we got into our late game transition.”

Adrian Nocum was at the forefront of that fourth-quarter separation, firing nine of his 21 there and hauling down seven rebounds to highlight his Player of the Game-winning performance.

Later, Glen Yang and Hayden Blankley struck hard in overtime to power Eastern (6-2) to a 99-91 win over holder San Miguel Beer (3-3).