MANILA: The bull-dozing freight train that is Jai Lewis was finally stopped on his tracks, and so was Rain or Shine.
Sta. Lucia, after blowing a 24-point second quarter lead, last night regrouped in time to deal the Elasto Painters and their huge import Lewis a first loss, 109-100, to go into a two-week break tied with its victims for second in the Fiesta Cup eliminations.
The Realtors blew cold in one stretch bridging the second and third quarters, seeing their 49-25 lead evaporate into thin air before getting their acts together again with runs one after the other and eventually improve to 5-2. It is the same record now being held by Rain or Shine, which lost for the first time in more than two weeks, or ever since the 300-pound Lewis took the place of the ineffective Charles Clark.
“I’ll take that win anytime,” Sta. Lucia coach Boyet Fernandez said. “I don’t like my guys giving up a 24-point lead, but at least they came back. I’m looking forward to enjoying our vacation.”
Lewis, on the other hand, will go into a seven-day vacation in the United States wondering what went wrong last night.
After scoring 19 points in the first two periods, Lewis was held down to just two points in each of the last two quarters to finish with 23 and fail to help the Painters sustain their comeback from that 24-point hole.
Rain or Shine actually took a 57-56 lead with 6:10 left in the third quarter after a Jireh Ibanez triple. But the Painters just couldn’t get going after that, yielding a 12-1 run that had the Realtors rebuilding a 68-58 lead. Anthony Johnson was again the biggest difference why the Realtors remained hot, shooting 34, 22 of them in the final half, while getting off-the-bench support from Norman Gonzales.
Gonzales finished with 17 points built around five triples, three of them in the second period, the fourth coming to cap that run that gave the Realtors back a 10-point lead, and the last coming in the fourth period which helped scuttle a series of Rain or Shine rallies.
Solomon Mercado, the other half of the Painters’ super-rookie tandem, paced Rain or Shine with 27 points, 12 of them in the fourth. Gabe Norwood, the other super rookie, had seven of his 12 in the final period.
But Rain or Shine fell to 5-2 after Lewis was effectively taken out of his comfort zone by the swarming Sta. Lucia defense. Lewis had just 15 rebounds. The story of the second game was again a team regaining composure at the right time.
Talk ‘N Text avoided another monumental collapse, holding fort in the stretch after blowing a 19-point fourth quarter lead for a 124-122 victory over Alaska .
The Tropang Texters, who came into the game fresh from a 135-133 loss to Barako Bull where they failed to hold a 24-point lead in the final canto, got the goods from Mac Cardona in the final 1:04 to be where coach Chot Reyes said “is a lucky 3-3” in the standings.
“To tell you guys frankly, I feel very fortunate that we are 3-3 right now,” the articulate Reyes told reporters afterwards. “I am not at all impressed at the way we are playing of late. There’s just no consistency in this team.
“Coming into this game, we were not even worried about Alaska ,” he said.
