Rain or Shine ousts Meralco Bolts; takes on Talk ‘N Text in semis

Not even an overtime victory and a place for Rain or Shine in the PBA Commissioner’s Cup’s Final Four could make coach Yeng Guiao feel a little less hate on Cliff Hodge of Meralco.
The fiery drillmaster ripped Hodge yet again in the winning coach’s interview, after Guiao steered his Elasto Painters to a 97-96 victory over the Bolts that sealed a semifinal clash with Talk ‘N Text starting Monday night.
“I meant no harm (on people suffering from Down Syndrome) by the term I used and I apologize – but my apology doesn’t extend to Cliff Hodge,” Guiao said. “If there’s another term I could think of to call him, I’d use it.”
Guiao, who was fined P100,000 on Thursday for calling Hodge a ‘mongoloid’ after a 102-93 Game 2 win, got 37 points, 21 rebounds and three blocks from import Wayne Chism, who has now totally erased all first impressions on him.
But before going on to talk about the thrilling victory, Guiao didn’t mince words in continuing his tirade against the sophomore Meralco forward.
“He’s a human projectile throwing himself at people while pretending to go after the ball,” Guiao, known to never have held back in saying what he feels, said. “He hurts a lot of players that way; he’s a danger to this league.”
Hodge had another incident with a major Rain or Shine player in Jeff Chan, who took an elbow to the face late in the fourth quarter.
The Painters lost an 11-point lead with just over three minutes left in regulation and had to use an eight-point buffer to cushion another wild finish by the Bolts.
Meralco, which won the first game of the series, is still without a playoff win in three tries, losing in the previous two seasons to B-Meg and San Mig Coffee, respectively, also in this same conference.
Chan, after shooting just three points in regulation, scored the first four points for the Painters in extension, and Chism had a dunk and a layup for 95-87, before the Bolts came back one final time to make it close.
Paul Lee, who shot 18 points, hit two free throws with 5.7 seconds remaining for a 97-93 lead, before Gary David hit a triple that came a tad late as there was only four-tenths of a second left on the game clock.
“Our import (Chism), he carried us on his shoulders,” Guiao said. “He’s a far more superior import than (Meralco’s Darnell) Jackson. Their import couldn’t play defense and we exploited that weakness.
“That’s how we were able to survive this series, we just went to that (Jackson’s weakness),” added Guiao,
“We have one day to prepare and we’re facing the best team in the league,” said Guiao of Game 1 of their series with the Tropang Texters on Monday. “But if you want to be the best, you have to beat the best – that’s as simple as it can get.”
Talk ‘N Text has won all of its nine elimination round games and needed just one game in the quarterfinals to oust crowd-favorite and No. 8 seed Barangay Ginebra.
Meanwhile, San Mig Coffee also won the last two games of its series with Alaska, with a 79-65 win ending the Aces’ reign and putting the Mixers into a separate best-of-five series against giant-killer Air21 starting Tuesday night also at the Big Dome in Cubao.
Peter June Simon scored 21 points to pace all San Mig shooters as the Mixers stayed alive in their hunt for a third straight title. The Mixers also made it to the Final Four for the seventh straight conference with the win.
Robert Dozier paced Alaska with 23 points, but the Aces trailed early and never really got to take the Mixers out of their rhythm.
“To be honest, I didn’t think that I would be here (for this interview) because Alaska was playing at a very high level,” San Mig coach Tim Cone said of his former team. “But these guys (Mixers) that I have kind of have a blueprint in them that they are comfortable playing these kinds of games (rubber matches).”