WITHAdrian Nocum going on a late rampage and import Deon Thompson working free from foul woes, Rain or Shine averted ouster via sweep at the hands of quarterfinal foe Converge.
And as they hacked out a gutsy 114-104 Game 2 victory Friday night at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium, the Elasto Painters pulled even with the FiberXers and brought their best-of-three duel in the PBA Commissioner's Cup Last-8 down to a sudden death.
ROS and Converge will battle it out one last time Sunday at the Ynares Center in Antipolo with the winner moving on to face TNT in a best-of-seven semifinal contest.
With the FiberXers threatening to score a followup to their 130-118 win in Wednesday's Game 1, Nocum and Thompson stepped forward to spearhead ROS' lifesaving efforts.
Nocum dropped 16 of his 28 in the fourth quarter, making a slew of highlight reel layups and three-pointers, to key a late run that lifted ROS to a 97-87 cushion.
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After his abbreviated stint in Game 1 which saw him whistled for his sixth and final foul in the third canto, Thompson returned with a vengeance and scattered 28 markres with 18 rebounds and seven assists. The ROS import only had two fouls in 40 minutes of action this time.
"Mas maganda yung depensa namin today," said Elasto Painters coach Yeng Guiao.
"Their (FiberXers') efficiency around the basket (in Game 1) was just incredible. Almost 95 percent on the average. So I think that's the first thing we needed to address. We made some defensive adjustments. 'Yung mga chops namin, 'yung help side namin. We wanted to protect the paint a bit more and get more rebounds. Doon kami natalo nung huling laro."
ROS spoiled the 29-point explosion of Jordan Heading for Converge and held import Cheick Diallo to 17 in pulling off the equalizer/rubbermatch-forcing win. (OL)
The Scores :
RAIN OR SHINE 114 - Thompson 28, Nocum 28, Clarito 19, Asistio 10, Caracut 7, Santillan 7, Tiongson 5, Datu 5, Malonzo 5, Belga 0.
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CONVERGE 104 - Heading 29, Stockton 20, Diallo 17, Arana 17, Winston 10, Santos 5, Baltazar 3, Nieto 3, Delos Santos 0, Garcia 0, Racal 0, Andrade 0.
QUARTERS: 23-29, 51-53, 70-68, 114-104
