Yeng Guiao of Rain or Shine just enjoyed one of those nights when coaching wasn’t tough at all.

With his undermanned Elasto Painters playing their hearts out, Rain or Shine carved out an 83-74 decision of powerhouse defending champion Purefoods to stay in the running for a top two finish in the PBA Philippine Cup eliminations at the Araneta Coliseum in Cubao.

And Guiao got a lot from his unheralded duo of reserve guards in TY Tang and Jonathan Uyloan, who combined for five straight points during the game’s most critical time that warded off the Star Hotshots eventually.

It was the fifth straight win for the Elasto Painters, who rose to 7-2 and stayed within a full game of idle joint leaders San Miguel Beer and Alaska going into the final five days of the classification phase.

“Purefoods is just one of the hardest teams to beat in this league,” the outspoken Guiao said. “(But) it was easy coaching the team tonight because the guys wanted to win badly. I was just changing tired players on the court.”

Rain or Shine was without national team gunner Jeff Chan, Chris Tiu, Jervy Cruz and sophomore swingman Jeric Teng. But the Painters came out with a lot of fire that had them playing with control most of the night.

“I can’t give them enough credit, they just put on an effort out there,” Guiao said. “Some may be surprised with what they (Uyloan and Tang) can do, but I am not.

“They (Uyloan and Tang) do that in practice. They are unknowns, but they make themselves felt during games.”

Tang finished with 11 points and Uyloan nine, and Purefoods certainly felt what they did in a span of close to a minute when they scored those five unanswered points that had the Painters taking an 80-72 lead from 75-72.

First, it was the 5-foot-9 Tang who plucked down the rebound off his own miss inside the shaded lane and then scoring on a followup off Purefoods’ big men, before Uyloan buried a wide-open triple in the next Rain or Shine offensive.

Those two buckets silenced the huge Big Dome crowd that cheered the Hotshots and their popular players as Purefoods droped to 5-4 and is now in danger of being relegated to the lower half of quarterfinals qualifiers.

Paul Lee led the Painters with 18 points, most of them when Rain or Shine flaunted control. He kept his poise even after being blocked by Marc Pingris, recovering possession and finding Uyloan for that triple.

Tang, on the other hand, had possibly the best game of his career considering what happened with 9:22 remaining when he took a nasty fall and hit his head on the floor.

He returned with a tape above his right eyebrow and made that critical putback which just pleased Guiao no end that the colorful coach had to chide him for that.

“Matigas naman ang ulo nya at matigas din ang mukha nya kaya na-kaya nya yun (he has a hard head and face that’s why he can take that fall),” Guiao said with a wide smile.

Lost in the beauty of the Rain or Shine-Purefoods game was the upset 98-77 victory pounded out by Globalport over Barangay Ginebra earlier, which also booted out the Gin Kings from the automatic Final Four picture.

Terrence Romeo scored 25 points and Anthony Semerad, a rookie, scattered 17 for the Batang Pier, who were coached for the first time by Eric Gonzales.

Gonzales took over from Pido Jarencio on Thursday and immediately produced a result, slaying a giant that was Ginebra to improve to 5-5 and keep alive their aspirations of garnering a twice-to-beat privilege.

Ginebra also fell to 5-4 like the Hotshots and will obviously go for a finish in the upper half of the standings, meaning from third to sixth, to be able to have an advantage in the first phase of the quarterfinal round.

Greg Slaughter had 21 points and 15 rebounds and Japeth Aguilar 14 and 10 for the Gin Kings, who lost for the third straight game.

Meanwhile, Samboy Lim, a member of the league’s 25 Greatest Players list, remained in a coma at the Medical City Hospital and has showed no signs of improvement.

Medical City has yet to release a medical bulletin on the ‘Skywalker,” who collapsed during an exhibition game of PBA Legends last Friday.

Reports, however, said that Lim’s brain was already frozen on Saturday to prevent further damage and that he is in the last few hours of a critical 48-hour stretch given by his team of doctors.