PBA: Painters rip Tigers to stay unbeaten

Rain or Shine grabbed the solo lead in the PBA Commissioner’s Cup by whipping Coca-Cola, 102-92, Sunday at the Araneta Coliseum for a first ever 3-0 start in franchise history. A double-double effort by import Hassan Adams and a well-rounded contribution from the locals allowed the Elasto Painters to keep their unbeaten streak and register the team’s finest start in the league. The three-game winning run also happened to be the first for coach Yeng Guiao in more than three years. Adams led all Rain or Shine scorers with 21 points besides grabbing 11 rebounds. But he got substantial support from the rest of the Elasto Painters. Larry Rodriguez added 16 markers, Gabe Norwood contributed 14, Doug Kramer added 12 and 11 rebounds, and TY Tang chipped in 10. The Elasto Painters led by as many as 16, 53-37, with 1:47 to go in the first half, but saw the lead dwindle down to 83-80 early in the fourth. But Norwood ignited a 7-0 binge behind a five-point cluster to push the Elasto Painters back to safer ground at 90-80. Incidentally, Adams was sitting on the bench when Rain or Shine made the run. Gary David lived up to his billing as the league’s top scorer with 24 points, 15 of which came in the third quarter when the Tigers got their offense going. But import Russel Carter could only come up with 17 points, 15 below his scoring average. The Coca-Cola reinforcement, however, had 18 rebounds. The Tigers fell to 1-3 overall. - KY, RCJ, GMA News