RAIN or Shine coach Yeng Guiao said he was impressed by the composition of Blackwater after his team went through the wringer before beating the Bossing on Saturday in the PBA 48th Season Philippine Cup.
The Elasto Painters trailed by 14 points early in the ballgame, but got their rhythm in the second half to come away with a 110-103 win over the Bossing.
READ Rain or Shine leaves it late vs Blackwater for third win in a row
Guiao said Blackwater has put together a strong line-up that may be the best it has ever had since the Bossing came in as an expansion team in 2014.
“Etong Blackwater, I think they put together one of their best line-ups since nabuo sila,” said Guiao. “They have the speed, they have the size, they have the shooting, scoring ability.”
“I just hope na they keep this line-up for long dahil ang tingin ko, panglaban itong line-up na ‘to. Hirap talunin,” said Guiao, obviously referring to the constant changes in the Blackwater roster over the years.
Blackwater’s depth showed in the game on Saturday with four players scoring in double figures, led by Rey Suerte with his 20 points.
The Bossing even got deeper during the offseason when they were able to acquire Rey Nambatac from the Elasto Painters in an offseason trade. Nambatac had 13 points but fouled out of Saturday’s contest.
“Alam namin na magiging problema si Rey Nambatac dahil siyempre, natural naman na motivated ka to play really well against your former team. Maganda ‘yung nilaro ni Rey. Nagka-problema kami sa kanya. Mabuti na lang, nag-foul out,” said Guiao.
“Isa pang Rey, si Rey Suerte naman. Wala talagang malas na laro si Rey Suerte. Suwerte parati. Kaya siya ang nagbigay ng problema sa amin bandang huli,” he added.
ROS showcases depth
Fortunately, Rain or Shine showed its own depth with Santi Santillan finishing with 28 points, the second-best scoring output in his career.
“Santi, Beau [Belga], Jhonard [Clarito], Andrei [Caracut], they picked up the slack for us. Nung umpisa kasi, hirap kami makahanap ng opensa. We weren’t really in our flow. We weren’t making our usual shots. Maybe you can credit that to the defense that they (Blackwater) were playing against us,” said Guiao.
Get more of the latest sports news & updates on SPIN.ph
NOTICE ON UNAUTHORIZED AND UNLAWFUL USE, PUBLICATION, AND/OR DISSEMINATION OF SPIN.PH CONTENT: Please be notified that any unauthorized and unlawful use, publication, and/or dissemination of Spin.ph’s content and/or materials is a direct violation of its legal and exclusive rights to the same, and shall be subject to appropriate legal action/s.
