MANILA: In less than one quarter, Rain or Shine already didn’t know what hit them.
Defending champion Barangay Ginebra ran roughshod over the Elasto Painters last night as the Gin Kings mangled their young foes silly on the way to a 114-71 destruction at the Ynares Center for an outright Final Four seat in the PBA Fiesta Cup.
The Kings took a 28-8 lead after just the first 10 minutes and never looked back as the Painters played with the immaturity of their youth and were never able to get back in contention to settle for No. 3 ranking and drop to the wildcard phase.
Ginebra, meanwhile, joined San Miguel as an outright semifinalist, earning at least a two-week break in the process while awaiting a rival as the eight other teams below them in the standings fight for their lives starting Wednesday.
Rain or Shine, though, is still heavily favored to advance to the quarterfinals, needing to beat No. 10-ranked Barako Bull just once in the first of two games scheduled on Wednesday at the Araneta Coliseum.
The other game scheduled at the start of the wildcard will pit No. 4 Burger King against Alaska , which also played listless earlier to lose, 81-74, to Coca-Cola, and be the No. 9 team. Alaska will also need to beat the Whoppers twice to advance.
Other wildcard pairings will have Purefoods and Talk ‘N Text clashing and Sta. Lucia and the Coca-Cola Tigers slugging it out in KO matches. Both games are scheduled Friday.
“Though we will be having a long rest, the advantages (of being in the semifinals outright) far outweigh the disadvantages,” Ginebra’s Jong Uichico told reporters later. “We will have time to rest, time to recover from our injuries.”
One of the injured players that Uichico obviously wants to recover as soon as possible is Mark Caguioa, his spitfirish swingman who is still in the United States having therapy on both knees.
Uichico said that he has instructed Caguioa, in their last communication, to return to the country and continue his therapy here and have team doctors evaluate the state of his recovery.
“I don’t think rustiness will be an issue for us once the semifinal round arrives,” Uichico answered. “The semis being a seven-game series, I’m sure that we will be able to shake off (the rust) after the first game.”
Import David Noel, after being held to just seven points in a 76-75 loss to Alaska on Friday, scored 13 early points and keyed the Ginebra breakaway. After scoring just 14 points in the first quarter to trail by 16, the Elasto Painters managed just 10 in the second and were completely out of it at the close of the half with Ginebra taking a 50-24 lead into the third quarter.
It was all Ginebra from there as the Painters weren’t even able to come within arm’s length of the Kings, who won this title at the expense of Air21 last year with a 7-foot import in Chris Alexander.
Noel went on to finish with 17 points despite sitting out the final period. Ronald Tubid paced the Kings with 18 and five others scored in twin digits.
In the first game, James Penny scored 29 points and had 18 rebounds, and Asi Taulava scattered 18 and had 16 boards in dominating performances that frustrated Alaska all night.
The duo also combined for 11 offensive boards, engineering a second quarter breakaway that had the Tigers wriggling out of a 30-all game to take the half by nine and wield control the rest of the game.
“All credit should go to the players,” Coca-Cola coach Kenneth Duremdes said. “It has been a very tough last five days for us and they displayed so much character in winning those two games.”
The Tigers came into the match fresh from an impressive victory over San Miguel, a win that Duremdes said gave them the belief that they could play against the top-tier teams in the tournament.
