ONE would think Rain or Shine coach Yeng Guiao would be down following a tough loss.
The opposite is true, however, as Guiao remained upbeat his Elasto Painters can finally put one over the Petron Blaze Boosters Wednesday in their PBA Governors’ Cup semifinals at the Cuneta Astrodome.
Gametime is at 7:15 p.m.
Petron can make it an imposing 2-0 lead in the best-of-five matchup should it win anew and rack up an 11th straight triumph in all.
Guiao would have none of that, however.
“We made it close and we had a chance to win it in the end,” said Guiao, referring to an 83-91 loss in the series opener last Monday.
The defending champions hung tough despite missing the services of the injured Paul Lee and the decisive manpower advantage by the Boosters and Guiao hopes his charges would see it the way he does.
“It’s also a morale booster on our part,” said Guiao. “We gave them a good fight. It proved that Petron Blaze is not unbeatable.”
Even Petron coach Gee Abanilla admitted Rain or Shine gave them a big scare despite his team’s 56-48 rebounding advantage. “They played really well, they matched us up pretty well,” he stated.
It took a timely Elijah Millsap explosion and a backup triple by Alex Cabagnot in the fourth quarter before the Boosters could fully pull free of the E-Painters, who charged back from a 10-point deficit to even take a 77-73 lead.
Millsap laced his PBA career-high 41 points with 11 straight points to make it an 84-81 count, before Cabagnot’s clutch trey made it an 87-83 game, only 79 seconds to go.
Millsap added 14 rebounds and Cabagnot wound up with 18 points and six rebounds. Only June Mar Fajardo, however, was the other Petron player in double figures with 15 he spiked with a career-high 17 boards.
“We’ve got to get contribution from our locals. Some of the locals must step up,” stressed Abanilla.
The same is true of Rain or Shine. Arizona Reid had 28 points and 11 rebounds despite battling cramps since the third quarter while Jeff Chan bucked a 1-for-7 three-point shooting to finish with 16.
No other E-Painter scored in double figures although Beau Belga and Ryan Arana combined for 14 points, the bulk coming during their fightback from a 48-58 deficit.
In the end, neither team even reached 40 percent in field goal shooting and both Abanilla and Guiao expect the same to be true for the rest of the series.
“Our overall strategy remains the same, which is to keep it close and give ourselves a chance to win it in the end,” said Guiao. (NC)
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