Converge one away from final four

MANILA, Philippines — With a fierce second-half storm, Converge made it two in a row against Rain of Shine and moved on the doorstep of franchise history.

Behind a dizzying 53-36 charge after the restart, the FiberXers roared to a clutch 105-89 romp and wrested control from the Elasto Painters in their PBA Governors’ Cup best-of-five quarterfinal series, 2-1, last night in Dasmariñas.

Juan Gomez de Liaño, Cameron Clark, Justine Baltazar and Calvin Abueva spearheaded Converge’s efforts on both ends in front of a packed crowd at the Dasmariñas Arena to set the tone for the emphatic followup to their 130-125 tying win in Game 2.

And so, after dropping the opener, 120-124, the troops of coach Delta Pineda are now in great position to finish off ROS in Game 4 and secure their first-ever stint in the semifinals.

History beckons but for Pineda and Co., this is no time to get ahead of themselves.

“Hindi pa po tapos ang laban, We expect more from Rain or Shine on the next game,” said Pineda, whose crew intends to make the most of their chance to nail the clinching third win on Friday for an F4 date against NLEX.

The FiberXers dropped a 23-14 bomb in the fourth – holding the Elasto Painters to a measly 5-of-20 shooting – to run away with the W.

Gomez de Liaño fired 15 of his 19 in the second half and complemented his offensive with 13 rebounds and five assists in leading Converge.

Clark delivered 18-5-5, Baltazar produced 15-6 and Jhonnel Policarpio had 13-7 while also sharing defensive duties with Alec Stockton against ROS gunner Adrian Nocum.

Nocum finished with a triple-double of 11-11-11 for ROS but he was held scoreless in the payoff period. Felix Lemetti, with 18 spiked by three triples, and Caelan Tiongson, with 16, all from the three-point arc, took the cudgels.

Meanwhile, San Miguel Beer stayed alive with a hard-earned 101-98 verdict over sweep-seeking Barangay Ginebra.

The Beermen blew a 15-point lead but recovered to cut the Gin Kings’ lead to 2-1.