Rain or Shine, Alaska clinch quarterfinal series openers

Just how good is Paul Lee? Last season’s top rookie played his second game for Rain or Shine last night and was the big difference as the Elasto Painters finally found a way to beat Barangay Ginebra — and beat the Gin Kings to a pulp.
Lee engineered a third quarter breakaway by the Painters that resulted in a cruising 82-65 decision of the crowd-darling Gin Kings for a 1-0 lead in their best-of-three quarterfinal series in the PBA Philippine Cup at the Araneta Coliseum.
Ginebra didn’t have an answer to Lee, especially in the third quarter where the 6-foot guard shot seven of his 11 points in a 20-2 run that broke the collective backs of the Kings.
“He was kind of excited playing against Ginebra,” Rain or Shine coach Yeng Guiao said of Lee. “It took him a while to get started, but when he got his rhythm, he was OK. He’s a matchup problem for the opposing team.
“Paul can shoot, rebound and pass. That’s what he brings to the table.” The victory was Rain or Shine’s first in three games against the Kings this season, and even Guiao admitted that he was surprised at how easy it turned out to be.
More surprising is the fact that Jeff Chan, the lefty who is the squad’s leading scorer, scored just one point.
“We did not expect this to be this easy,” Guiao said. “But this is just the first game and I’m sure that they’ll come back in Game 2.” Rain or Shine guns for a sweep and a spot in the Final Four on Friday, the same goal that Alaska will have after the Aces started out hot and held on to plaster Meralco, 90-84, in the other best-of-three series.
Defending champion and top-ranked Talk ‘N Text guns for a semifinal seat today when the Tropang Texters, who lost just two games in the elimination round, slug it out with No. 8 Air21.
The Texters need to win just once over the Express to book a place in the next round, the same privilege that No. 2 San Mig Coffee has against sister squad Petron Blaze, the sixth seed.
Both games are also slated at the Big Dome in Cubao.
From a 39-29 game at the half, the Painters ran at every opportunity and forced the Kings to several turnovers in a 20-2 blitz that had the Kings dumbfounded no end.
That 10-point bulge became a 59-31 bubble after just six minutes of the third period, and the Kings would never threaten from there even if Lee was recalled to the bench after that and returned only in the final six minutes.
Mark Caguioa fought the hardest for Ginebra, who also got the boot from Rain or Shine in this tournament last season — also via a sweep in the quarterfinals.
Caguioa scored all of his 16 points in the first three periods and got little help from everyone else as coaching staff remained in the dugout trying to figure out what happened well into the second game of the night.
Meanwhile, Cyrus Baguio scored 10 of his 26 points in the hot Alaska start and Gabby Espinas backed him up with 19 as the duo made up for a foul-riddled night by rookie Calvin Abueva to help the Aces pull through.
Abueva played just 15 minutes and left the game early in the fourth quarter because of six fouls.