Rain or Shine turned to its bench mob led by Jhonard Clarito to repulse Terrafirma, 116-105, for its fourth straight victory in the Philippine Basketball Association Commissioner’s Cup yesterday at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
Clarito provided the spark off the bench to help veteran big man Beau Belga, who left the game early in the fourth period after hurting his right ankle, and import Tree Treadwell extend the Elasto Painters’ hot streak in their last match of the year.
The unheralded forward produced a career-high 16 points on 6-of-8 shooting from the field while also pulling down five rebounds and dishing out three assists for Rain or Shine, which got 77 bench points — 28 more than its counterpart.
“Coach Yeng (Guiao) trusts his players a lot. Our confidence is high because we have a blessing from our coach to take our shots whenever we’re open,” Clarito said.
Rain or Shine, which improved to a 4-5 win-loss record and inched closer to securing a quarterfinals berth, displayed its balanced firepower as five other players finished in double digits.
Belga led the way with 18 points before calling it a night following a bad landing.
Treadwell had another monster double-double of 16 points and 19 rebounds, while Leonard Santillan got 16 markers. Andrei Caracut picked up his game in the second half and chipped in 13 points and rookie center Keith Datu had another solid game in a relief role, finishing with 12 points and 11 rebounds on top of two blocks.
“It’s been a good combination of locals and our import,” said Elasto Painters coach Yeng Guiao.
“Our chemistry is getting even better every game. Seeing Jhonard Clarito as our best player proved that in all those wins we’ve picked up, we had different best players.”
Rain or Shine also pounded it down inside as it put up 66 points from the painted area compared to 38 of Terrafirma.
“It goes to show that we had a good spread of contribution from the players. We a;so talked about how we wanted to celebrate Christmas coming off a victory and since this is our last game for the year, it would be nice when you’re eating Noche Buena or Media Noche coming off a win.”
Thomas De Thaey scored 31 points in a losing cause for Dyip. Juami Tiongson fired 19 markers but struggled from the shackling defense of Clarito in the fourth period where he only had two.
Moving forward, Guiao shared that he feels good about his team’s chances as the Elasto Painters, who remained at the eighth spot, are just half a game behind seventh placer TNT (4-4) and a full game behind sixth placer NorthPort (5-4).
“We like our chances and I think we’re playing much better,” Guiao said.
“We have an inside presence now on Tree, who may not be a heavy scorer, but does so many things, including finding his teammates and that’s the reason why our local contributions have improved.”
The Scores:
RAIN OR SHINE (116) — Belga 18, Clarito 16, Santillan 16, Treadwell 16, Datu 12, Caracut 10, Belo 7, Ildefonso 6, Nocum 5, Asistio 3, Mamuyac 2, Nambatac 2, Demusis 0, Norwood 0.
TERRAFIRMA (105) — De Thaey 31, Tiongson 19, Alolino 16, Carino 15, Holt 8, Ramos 7, Go 5, Miller 2, Daquioag 2, Cahilig 0, Calvo 0, Camson 0, Gomez de Liano 0.
QUARTERS: 25-26, 58-51, 87-85, 116-105.
