Ryan Araña provided the sparked for Rain or Shine off the bench as the Elasto painters held off Petron Blaze, 88-83 to post a commanding two game lead, 3-1 in their PLDT MyDSL Philippine Cup semifinals series yesterday at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
photo credit: gmanetwork.com (KC CRUZ)
Araña pushed the pace in the second half while Jeff Chan delivered the needed scoring to negate Junmar Fajardo’s monster showing of 27 points and 17 rebounds and close out the game 4, which seen the Elasto painters hung on their defense and Petron’s missed open shots to come away with the win.
Tied at 82-all after Fajardo pounded another basket in the paint, Chan quickly went for a lay up to give the E-painters a two-point cushion with 4.37 remaining to play.
Both squads had scoring drought only to be broken by Beau Belga, who was quiet all-game long due to foul trouble, but buried a huge three-pointer to pad Rain or Shine lead to five with 1.53 left in the clock, a manageable deficit that the Booster did not overcome.
With still 55 seconds remaining Arwind Santos rattled out a corney three, then Chan in the ensuing play lost the ball en route to Alex Cabagnot lay up, but the latter missed from point blank, giving the possession back to Rain or Shine as Chan made up for his turnover with a rebound.
Petron still has the chance to come closer with 27.7 left after Jervy Cruz missed both of his charities but they made nothing but one point out of their last possessions most are from Marcio L(–foul word(s) removed–)iter’s three-point attempts.
Araña was the best player of the game despite not scoring much but his all-around 12 points, 4 rebounds, 3 (–foul word(s) removed–)ists and 2 steals effort proved to be instrumental in energizing the Elasto painters after Petron opened the third strongly with Chris Ross and Fajardo at the helm.
Chan, who only produced one point in game 3, and Jireh Ibanes drilled in 11 markers each for the Elasto painters who lost Paul Lee in the second quarter due to sprained ankle. Coach Yeng Guiao was ejected once again early in the third quarter.
Arwind Santos and Chris Lutz chipped in 14 and 13 points respectively for the Boosters, who are now on the birnk of elimination come game 5.
The scores:
Rain or Shine (88) – Arana 12, Chan 11, Ibanes 11, Norwood 10, Cruz 8, Rodriguez 8, Quinahan 7 , Lee 7, Nuyle 6, Belga 3, Tang 3, Almazan 2, Tiu 0.
Petron (83) – Fajardo 27, Santos 14, Lutz 13, L(–foul word(s) removed–)iter 10, Ross 9, Tubid 5, Cabagnot 5, Duncil 0, Taha 0, Kramer 0, Hubalde 0, Deutchman 0.
Quarterscores: 33-28, 48-50, 72-69, 88-83