ROS rips Phoenix Almazan reduced to being cheerleader

Games Tomorrow (Cuneta Astrodome) 4:30 p.m. – Blackwater vs GlobalPort 7 p.m. – NLEX vs San Miguel

Rain or Shine rebounded from an anemic offensive showing the last time by venting its ire on Phoenix, 120-99, last night to snap a two-game losing skid in the PBA Philippine Cup at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

The Elasto Painters put up 39 points in the first quarter on 16 of 22 shots while limiting the Fuel Masters to 13, setting the tone for a lopsided contest following disappointing losses to the Blackwater Elite and GlobalPort Batang Pier.

Coach Caloy Garcia lauded his team's strong performance after only scoring 70 on 29-percent shooting in Friday's 78-70 loss to GlobalPort, the lowest singlegame output by a team this conference.

“I told them after the last game that it's not the team that I know, especially if you only scored 70 points and I challenged them to be a running team from the beginning to the end. I just hope we continue doing the same thing,” said Garcia after his team tied Phoenix, NLEX and Alaska for a share of fifth to eighth places at 2-2.

The win, however, may come at a costly price after sophomore wingman Ed Daquioag, who had fired 21 points on 7-of-10 shooting, missed the rest of the game when he hurt his hip on an awkward fall following a three-point play opportunity and Rain or Shine ahead, 7345, with 7:33 left in the third quarter.

Garcia is hopeful the injury of Daquioag, taken last season in a trade that sent Mike Tolomia to Meralco, won't be as serious as it looks with the Elasto Painters still waiting for Jericho Cruz and Jay Washington to recover.

Center Raymond Almazan was in uniform but spent the whole game playing the role of cheerleader as a disciplinary action because of a disagreement with Garcia following the GlobalPort match.

“We know that he can perform a lot better than we did against GlobalPort and I felt it wasn't Raymond, so napagalitan. Siyempre nagkatampuhan, pero that's it. I think kasama naman sa trabaho namin yun,” Garcia said.

Chris Tiu returned from resting his knee against GlobalPort and delivered 17 points, four rebounds, six assists and two steals while James Yap finally got himself in the scoring groove after averaging just 3.3 points in the first three games and made 20 points in nearly 21 minutes.