Rain or Shine loses to Qatar in heated match, goes 0-4 in Jones Cup

Rain or Shine's woes continued after absorbing another loss in the 2023 William Jones Cup, this time in an intense battle with Qatar, 93-86, as they remained winless in the annual tournament on Tuesday in Taiwan.

The Elasto Painters slid to 0-4 while Qatar copped its first win to improve to 1-3.

An Andrei Caracut triple and Ange Kouame putback sent the Philippines to a 73-71 lead early in the fourth period before Qatar tied it up at 73-all.

Nick Demusis, though, had heated moments with Meho Haracic at the 7:25 mark before he was whistled for a flagrant foul at the 6:28 mark after an incident with Nedim Muslic, allowing Qatar to drill two freebies for a 77-73 cushion.

Muslic then made it an 86-79 advantage as Qatar threatened to pull away before Anton Asistio buried a three-pointer, 93-86.

But time ran out for the Filipinos as Qatar ended their slump at the expense of the Elasto Painters.

Import Nick Evans paced Rain or Shine with 20 points and six rebounds while Asistio and Santi Santillan chipped in 12 and 10 markers apiece.

Rain or Shine will hope to bounce back on Wednesday against Iran at 3 p.m.

—Bea Micaller/JMB, GMA Integrated News