The Rain Or Shine Elasto Painters sets first Finals schedule in the current PLDT myDSL PBA Philippine Cup at the Smart Araneta Coliseum through eliminating Petron in a 97-88 friday night victory in the game 5 of their best-of-seven semifinal series. They won the series with four games againts a lone win from Petron Blaze Boosters.
Assistant Coach Caloy Garcia took over the drivers seat for the Painters as ROS' Headcoach Yeng Guiao was serving his one game suspension. Garcia said that them making into the finals in a game without coach Yeng is special and that the players really wanted to win the game.
Beau Belga and Jeff Chan lead the Painters with their almost double-double performance with 18 and 17 points respectively and 9 rebounds apiece. Chan lead the way for the Painters in the third quarter comeback by pumping in 7 of his 17 in that quarter and ROS erased a 12 point Petron lead and even leading going into the last period at 72-69.
Paul Lee pumped in 16 points off the bench and Ryan Arana added 10 points
On the other hand, Arwind Santos leads Petron scorers with his double-double performance of 20 points and 13 rebounds. Marcio Lassiter had 18 while June Mar Fajardo had an equal 16 points and 16 rebounds but their efforts weren't enough to extend the series.
Rain or Shine is in their second consecutive Finals appearance in the Philippine Cup after their Finals series with TalknText last season. The Painters are now waiting for the winners of San Mig Super Coffee Mixers against Bgry. Ginebra Gin Kings in the other semifinal matchup which is currently having 2 wins apiece.
Quarter Scores: 22-31, 45-52, 72-69, 97-88
Player Scores:
Rain Or Shine - Belga 18, Chan 17, Lee 16, Arana 10, Norwood 9, Rodriguez 8, Cruz 6, Quinahan 5, Tang 4, Almazan 2, Tiu 0, Teng 0, Ibanes 0
Petron - Santos 20, Lassiter 18, Fajardo 16, Kramer 8, Cabagnot 8, Hubalde 6, Tubid 5, Ross 4, Lutz 2, Taha 1
