They’d also need a Game 5 to decide this one.

Getting a sprinkling of good fortune in the end, Rain or Shine on Thursday night survived Alaska, 123-121 in overtime after getting a huge offensive lift from Beau Belga to also take their half of the PBA Governors’ Cup semifinal series to a decider at the Araneta Coliseum in Cubao.

Belga scored the final two baskets of the Elasto Painters inside the final 1:05m, a sequence of baskets that sandwiched an unfortunate event for Alaska when JV Casio slipped while going for a wide-open layup which would have shattered a 121-all tie.

Instead, it was Belga who got to play hero, plucking down an offensive rebound off an Arizona Reid miss to hit a short stab while drawing a foul from RJ Jazul. He didn’t complete the three-point play and gave Alaska another chance to tie.

But Casio missed a triple and then the ensuing 16-foot jumper all inside the final 11.8 seconds that allowed the Painters to escape.

It was a commendable performance by the Aces to say the least, as they rallied from 19 points down early in the second period before playing the final 6:24 of regulation without an import after Henry Walker was ejected because of a flagrant foul 2 infraction.

Walker, who also blew his top when the Aces lost Game 2, hit Paul Lee with a right elbow to the back of the head, flattening the Rain or Shine guard for a couple of minutes.

“He is a menace to the league, a big bully,” Rain or Shine coach Yeng Guiao said of Walker, who also had an incident with Belga in Game 2 when he tackled the Painters’ center from behind almost without provocation.

Walker has been summoned to appear before the Commissioner late on Friday. In the pre-season, commissioner Chito Salud fined Walker P20,000 for his involvement in a fight with the Meralco Bolts.

“We were lucky today,” Guiao said in acknowledging their good fortune. “I never thought that it would be this hard.”

Talk ‘N Text and defending champion San Mig Coffee will also play Game 5 of their series Friday night.

Reid topscored with 32 points and had 15 rebounds and Raymond Almazan, the rookie out of Letran, was the third man with a double-double for Guiao after shooting 14 and collaring down 11 boards.

Another reason why the Painters got to live another day was Gabe Norwood, who played through pain of a swollen right ankle to contribute seven points, five rebounds, six assists and a lot of things that didn’t really reflect on the stats sheets.

Norwood, who missed the last game, a 94-104 loss, also played defense on Walker the entire night. Walker was tossed out after hitting 16 points.

Dondon Hontiveros hit seven triples – five of them in the second quarter – to lead the Aces. It was also through Hontiveros that the Aces were able to make a game out of it after trailing, 24-43 with barely two minutes gone in the second period.

******

NLEX, the company the owns and operates the North Expressway, on Thursday afternoon sealed a deal to buy the Air21 PBA franchise, assuring itself that it will, in no way, become one of the league’s whipping boys in the next few seasons to come.

Details of the sale were kept under wraps, although it was reported, and this strikes this corner as hilarious, that the Express agreed to a selling price of P100 million, the exact amount NLEX would have paid to come in as an expansion squad with no core of a team to talk about.

But let’s leave that detail to the executives of both companies. They could be trying to hide some cash from the Bureau of Internal Revenue to save on taxes.

Let’s just go on record that we don’t believe it one bit, because why would you sell your franchise for the market price if that commodity is so sought after?

Let me just say that it was a great move by the NLEX people – the shelling out of a huge sum notwithstanding – of buying an existing franchise to be competitive enough right in their first season in the pro league.

The wisdom that they have was something that KIA Philippines and Black Water obviously did not possess, for they accepted what the board of governors offered them and paid P100 million to be the league’s doormat for the next three seasons, at least.

Considering how the lineups of the current teams are stacked, and the very few options that KIA and Black Water can explore in coming up with their respective rosters, it will be a dogfight between the two of them as to who will stay out of the cellar.

NLEX may have spent more — a lot more — but the Road Warriors will definitely escape the ignominy of being branded as a whipping boy.