Jhonard Clarito shot 29 points for the Rain or Shine Elasto Painters as they got past the TNT Tropang Giga, 121-113, on Sunday in the 48th Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Philippine Cup quarterfinals at the Rizal Memorial Coliseum.
Clarito’s triple shattered a 113-all deadlock in the last 1:58 during a final 7-0 spurt by the Elasto Painters.
Andrei Caracut added 21 points, including nine in the last 10 minutes of action, allowing Rain or Shine to tie their best-of-three quarterfinals’ clash with the Tropang Giga to 1-all.
Adrian Nocum banged in 20 points for the Elasto Painters, who forced a sudden death clash with the Tropang Giga.
“Nakabalik kami a couple of times. Ang importante is they get to learn to get up kapag nagkakaroon ng run,” said ROS coach Yeng Guiao.
Paul Varilla’s driving shot in the final second of the third allowed TNT to tie the match, 95-all, going into the fourth.
The next showdown between ROS and TNT is set on Thursday.
RR Pogoy delivered 28 points for the Elasto Painters.
Jayson Castro struck with 17 points for TNT.
The scores:
Rain or Shine (121) — Clarito 29, Caracut 21, Nocum 20, Santillan 20, Mamuyac 12, Belga 6, Datu 6, Demusis 3, Norwood 2, Ildefonso 2, Asistio 0, Borboran 0.
TNT (113) — Pogoy 28, Castro 17, Aurin 15, Oftana 11, K.Williams 11, Montalbo 5, B.Ganuelas-Rosser 5, Ponferrada 4, Varilla 4, Heruela 0, Galinato 0.
Quarterscores: 25-31; 62-64; 95-95; 121-113.