RAIN or Shine reasserted its mastery of San Mig Coffee, demolishing the defending champions, 93-65, on Friday night to ruin balik-import Denzel Bowles debut game in the PBA Commissioner’s Cup at the Mall of Asia Arena.
The Painters outscored the Mixers, 30-14, in the third period to take a 21-point bubble, 66-45, as the arrival of Bowles, last year’s Commissioner’s Cup best import, could not get his game going or fire up his teammates.
The Mixers fell to 0-3 (win-loss) in the mid-season conference and 2-6 this season against the Painters, who beat them in last year's Governors Cup title series.
Rain or Shine's Yeng Guiao, however, wasn't a picture of a happy coach after his team's second win in three games - a sequence of glaring non-calls during garbage time getting his goat in the end.
One such blunder was an obvious fall by Jewel Fonferada on Jonathan Uyloan which the refs failed to call.
“I don’t think the score mattered. The refs just have to do their job. We’re all just trying to do our job. It doesn’t matter what part of the game it is. There were at least two fouls the refs didn’t call. I think they just have to do their job,” said the fiery coach.
Nonetheless, Guiao said his team was fortunate enough to play against Bowles at a time when the highly regarded import still looked out of shape.
The 6-10 Bowles, who is coming off a stint with the Zheijang Golden Bulls in the Chinese Basketball Association, finished with just 12 points. He did grab 14 rebounds but made a game-high eight turnovers as he was hounded all throughout by Beau Belga and JR Quinahan.
“It’s just San Mig Coffee’s off night. I got what I was hoping for, which was Denzel Bowles not in good shape,” said Guiao.
Jervy Cruz led the Elasto Painters with 16 points and six boards, while Chris Tiu and import Bruno Sundov added 15 and 14, respectively.
Rookie Alex Mallari led the Mixers with 15 points, while James Yap had a quiet 13.
The scores:
Rain or Shine 93 - Cruz 16, Tiu 15, Sudov 14, Rodriguez 10, Ibanes 6, Lee 5, Matias 5, Norwood 5, Tang 4, Belga 4, Quinahan 4, Arana 3, Uyloan 2, Jaime 0
San Mig Coffee 65 - Mallari 15, Yap 13, Bowles 12, Gonzales 8, Devance 4, Simon 4, Najorda 2, Pingris 2, Reavis 2, De Ocampo 2, Alvarez 1, Barroca 0, Ponferada 0, Pacana 0
Quarterscores: 17-17, 36-31, 66-45, 93-65
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