The one thing the ELasto Painters didn’t expect was the kind of performance JV Casio would be having.

Douthit and Casio combined to form a lethal Mutt and Jeff partnership to score more than half of Smart-Gilas’ output, and Chris Tiu poured in 11 fourth-quarter points as the Nationals won their fifth straight game and remained undefeated in the PBA Commissioner’s Cup by holding back Rain or Shine, 99-94 Friday night at the Cuneta Astrodome.

The 6-foot-11 intimidating figure of the national team collected 23 points and 18 rebounds while Casio had his best performance in the tournament with 29 points on 10-of-14 shooting from the field as the league’s guest team came one victory away from formally clinching a spot in the six-team quarterfinal round.

“I expected this game to be close,” Rajko Toroman, the Nationals’ coach, said. “Rain or Shine is a respectable team. It was an aggressive ball game but I think we are getting better and better every game. I’m very satisfied with this win.”

As Toroman had predicted, the contest turned physical. Douthit encountered his roughest and toughest resistance yet in the tournament, trooped to the free-throw line for 17 attempts and converted eight. Still, he absorbed hard fouls with smiles at times, and was just simply unstoppable in a game that came after Smart-Gilas was coming off a lopsided 109-68, 41-point win over San Miguel Beer last Saturday.

It was Casio, however, who stunned the Painters.

The guy standing only 5-foot-9 used quickness to rip the Painters’ defense. To make his effort even more impressive, Casio was in attack mode throughout, scoring 14 in the first half and 15 in the second while dishing out a game-high four assists.

The Nationals, appearing in this tournament as a guest team as their way of toughening up for the May 28-June 5 Champions Cup in Manila and the more significant FIBA-Asia Championship in China from Sept. 15-25, will formally clinch a slot in the playoffs with another victory on March 23 against Derby Ace.

The result, however, might have been different had Rain or Shine’s two key players performed much better.

Import Hassan Adams, regarded by coach Yeng Guiao as the best in the crop, only produced 14 points while Gabe Norwood went scoreless in 24 minutes.

“Their import (Adams) was not in the game,” said Toroman. “That was their (Painters’) problem.”

Yet, even without the numbers from those two, the Painters gave the Nationals a scare.

They led by as many as 44-36 in the second quarter, but lost control of the contest when Smart-Gilas broke loose from a 60-60 count with a 10-0 blast.

From there, the Nationals were in total control even if the Painters went closest at 93-88 down the stretch. Tiu ended the comeback desires of Rain or Shine with a three-point shot.

While Smart-Gilas remained undefeated, Meralco is winless no more.

The Bolts finally barged into the win column later in the night, banking on a gutsy three-point shot by import Chamberlain Oguchi in a sizzling come-from-behind 89-86 win over Derby Ace.

Oguchi hit 12 of his 29 points in the fourth quarter – all coming from rainbow territory – with the last coming in the final 26.1 seconds to complete for Meralco a comeback from an 83-73 deficit with 4:23 left to play.

“I thought it was another lost cause,” said Bolts coach Ryan Gregorio after the tense game. “But we didn’t give up.”

Oguchi, the replacement import for the ineffective Anthony Danridge, scored nine of Meralco’s last 14 points. His final triple gave the Bolts an 87-86 lead, before Kerby Raymundo, playing only in his second game after missing 33 due to hip and groin injuries, muffed a fadeway jumper at the free throw line.

Mark Cardona was then fouled and knocked in two free throws with 8.9 seconds to go before Roger Yap missed a desperation three-point shot.

Meralco thus snapped a four-game losing streak in the tournament and a six-game losing spell dating back to the season-opening Philippine Cup. The outcome was also the Bolts’ first win against the Llamados after going 0-4 (win-loss) in the previous conference.

Derby Ace, which played minus two-time MVP James Yap because of a calf injury, dropped to a 2-4 record.

Still, it remains a long and tough climb for the Bolts in their aspirations to make it to the playoffs.

The tournament’s format only calls for six teams to advance to the next round, meaning that four ball clubs will be eliminated. At the moment, Meralco is tied with Air21 and San Miguel Beer at the bottom of the standings (1-4) with four games left in the single-round elimination stage.