The San Miguel Beermen were off-tuned on the let go as Rain or Shine Elasto Painters capitalized and took their opening game in the PBA bubble, 87-83.
The Elastopainters opened up their season with a 16-0 run until Mo Tautuaa’s three-pointer stopped the bleeding. SMB managed to pull in close and ended the first quarter trailing by five points.
Both teams went back-and-forth in the second quarter with Rain or Shine maintaining the lead by half time. Marcio Lassiter leads the Beermen with 10 points while Jayvee Mocon has already 16 points for the Elasto Painters.
San Miguel started off the third quarter flat as they are outscored by ROS and are down by 13 deep entering the final quarter.
The Beeermen came close with Terrence Romeo nailing a three-pointer with 27 seconds left puts them just behind by one point. On the other end, Rey Nambatac answered with a triple of his own leaving 12 seconds on the clock.
Romeo came up huge again with a jumper but the team to make a stop on the defensive side. Mocon sealed the victory making two free throws with 1.2 seconds left to keep San Miguel at bay.
The former San Beda Red Lion finished with 25 points, six rebounds and to assists and he got help from Kris Rosales who contributed 15 points and six rebounds. Beau Belga was also a factor hitting two three-pointers in the game tallying 12 points, six rebounds and two assists
Marcio Lassiter was the Beermen’s top scorer with 20 points along with four rebounds, two steals and five triples. Filling in for June Mar Fajardo was Mo Tautuaa who had a double-double of 17 points and 11 rebounds together with five assists and two three-pointers.
Alex Cabagnot breaks the 8,000 point career points mark in this game and chipped in 18 points for SMB.
This puts the Beermen’s record to 1-1 and their next game will be on Friday, October 16 against TNT Tropang Giga. On the other side, Rain or Shine hopes to keep the momentum running when they battle Terra Firma Dyip on the same day.
The Scores:
Rain or Shine (87) – Mocon 25, Rosales 15, Belga 12, Borboran 9, Ponferada 7, Onwubere 6, Nambatac 4, Torres 4, Norwood 3, Doliguez 2, Yap 0, Wong 0.
San Miguel (83) – Lassiter 20, Cabagnot 18, Tautuaa 17, Romeo 11, Gamalinda 5, Mamaril 3, Escoto 2, Santos 2, De Guzman 0, Zamar 0.
Quarterscores: 25-20, 46-41, 67-54, 87-83.
