Rain or Shine Elasto Painters vs Meralco Bolts

MANILA, Philippines – Rain or Shine converted three-pointers almost like making a layup 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 tonight.

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 on 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 conversion 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 Chann 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.

Buenafe wound up with five three-pointers and a team-high total of 24 points while Chan and Belga added four treys each, Matias, Quinahan and Norwood two apiece, and Paul Lee, Ibanes and Jonathan Uyloan one each.

Rain or Shine’s 44-point demolition of Meralco came right after its 36-point rout of Alaska Milk.

“It’s also hard to explain those back-to-back comfortable wins. We’ll take advantage of things. It helps lift the morale of this young team,” said Guiao.

By all intents and purposes, the game was all over at the half with Rain or Shine leading 68-41.

Still, the Elasto Painters refused to slow down and instead stepped on the gas in the third to stretch their lead to 106-64.