Veteran Beau Belga recorded his first career triple-double to power Rain or Shine to a 110-90 blowout of listless Converge in the Philippine Basketball Association Philippine Cup Wednesday night at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
Belga, who is on his 13th year with the franchise, filled the stats box with 25 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists to highlight the Elasto Painters’ second straight win that hiked their win-loss record to 2-4.
The 37-year-old veteran completed the feat, the first local to do so in club history, with a handoff pass to Andrei Caracut, who nailed a triple to push Rain or Shine’s advantage to 87-67 with 9:11 left in the game.
Belga closed his memorable night with a layup in the last 2:58 of the match with the Elasto Painters comfortably ahead, 103-81.
He logged in nearly 37 minutes of action despite Rain or Shine signing Papot Paredes to help Belga underneath and with injured Keith Datu out of commission for the rest of the All-Filipino Conference.
“I just know that I need to step up because Papot is just new to the team and he needs to jell with the group first and learn our plays. Keith left a big void so I need to double-time and step up a little bit more,” Belga, wearing the franchise’s retro Welcoat Dragons uniform, said.
“With my teammates’ help everything got a little bit easier. I’m not really aware of the triple-double. There were times that I neared getting one but I don’t force it,” he added.
“They were telling me during the game that I only needed one more assist. I said I’ll try. If it comes then great.”
Santi Santillan had a double-double of 23 points and 11 rebounds while Andrei Caracut dished out a career-best 13 assists to go with 15 markers for the Elasto Painters. Shaun Ildefonso contributed with a personal-high 15 points.
It was Rain or Shine’s most lopsided win in the Philippine Cup since scoring a 103-80 rout of Blackwater in a playoff for the last quarterfinal berth back on 3 February, 2017.
Converge dropped its sixth loss in as many games.
Justine Arana had 20 points and nine rebounds in a losing effort while Schonny Winston and Alec Stockton had 14 and 13 markers, respectively, for the FiberXers.
