Rain or Shine rallies from 26 points down to beat Meralco in OT

MANILA, Philippines -- Rain or Shine pulled yet another amazing feat with its huge fighting heart, clawing back from a 26-point deficit and topping Meralco, 102-98, in overtime Wednesday night to boost its bid for a Top Two finish in the PBA Philippine Cup elimination round at the Smart Araneta Coliseum. The Elasto Painters carved the epic win – the biggest comeback triumph by any team in the conference – after making a big turnaround following a near free-for-all in the third quarter that caused the ejection of center JR Quinahan. “What fired us up was JR. We drew a lot of energy and motivation from that incident. We told ourselves the best way to get back at them was to hustle and work the best way we can. That’s what happened,” said Rain or Shine coach Yeng Guiao after they squeezed out their eighth win in 11 outings. The Bolts blew away a 56-30 margin, suffering a fifth loss against the same number of wins. “We’re frustrated in the beginning as we’re not getting the calls. But we stayed patient and in time things fell for us,” said Guiao. “Coach Ryan (Gregorio) has said they were just complacent when they lost to us by 25. They might have become complacent in this game again.” Jeff Chan, Gabe Norwood, Beau Belga, Jervy Cruz and TY Tang provided superb efforts as they hacked out the win despite the ejection of Quinahan and Ryan Arana in the rugged, emotional match marred by a total of 10 flagrant fouls. “We’re dedicating the win to Cliff Hodge and Kelly Nabong,” Guiao later said, pointing to the two Meralco rookies who had their own flagrant infractions. Chan, Norwood, Belga, Tang, Arana and Cruz put in double-digit outputs as they played a balanced game, negating Sol Mercado’s 28-point explosion. Meralco had its own turnaround late in regulation, wiping out eight-point deficits to force the overtime at 88-all. Mercado fired three straight treys to tie the game, and two misses by Chan in the last 10 seconds eventually sent the game into OT. The Bolts utterly dominated the first three quarters while shooting 64.3-percent from the field and holding the E-Painters to 29.4-percent clip. Meralco enjoyed its 26-point spread at 56-30 after the commotion that marred the game three minutes into the second half. A flagrant foul by Quinahan on a driving Mercado sparked the melee. The E-Painters waged a determined chase in the fourth quarter, surging ahead at 68-67 and later leading by as many as eight thrice before the Bolts made their own rally to send the game into OT.