Philippine Sports News and Updates

MANILA, Philippines – Jai Lewis scored 27 points, including seven of Rain or Shine’s last 11, and Sol Mercado came through with a key steal in the stretch run of a 103-97 Elasto Painters win over the Barako Bull Wednesday in the PBA Motolite Fiesta Conference at the Astrodome.

The stocky import also had 14 rebounds and shot 10-for-14 from the field and had his best showing in the second half where he scattered 18 points, powering the youngest team in the league to their eighth win in 13 games and enhancing their chances of forcing at least a playoff for an outright semi-finals berth.

Jay-R Reyes added 16 points, Mercado had 14 while Gabe Norwood and Rob Wainwright combined for 23 for the Elasto Painters, last placers the past two seasons but are now close to advancing to the Final Four currently being contested by five ball clubs.

“It was a hard-fought game," said Rain or Shine coach Caloy Garcia. “We need games like this because we are not used to these kinds of situation. Barako Bull played one hell of a game."

Fresh from a 118-116 win over Talk ‘N Text on a last-second putback by Lewis, the Elasto Painters again were pushed to the limit by a team that has only two wins to show after 13 games.

Rain or Shine and Barako Bull were tied at 95 when Lewis converted on a difficult shot underneath and drew a foul from Alex Crisano. He, however, failed to knock in the bonus shot.

Jeff Chan tied it for the last time on two free throws with 1:10 left to play. Lewis, however, again powered his way inside and connected on a follow-up of his own miss to make it 99-97 with 50.3 seconds to go. Then, Mercado intercepted a pass by Chan to Reed Juntilla and darted home for the easy basket, 101-97, time down to 32 seconds.

Chan then horribly missed a three-pointer in the following play, the ball not even hitting the rim. Mercado then sealed the outcome with a split with 19.8 seconds left.

• GMANews.TV
• Philippine Sports Central