Norwood’s late three tows Rain or Shine to semifinals
Game today
Mall of Asia Arena
7:15 p.m.- San Mig Coffee vs. Alaska
GABE NORWOOD knocked down a booming triple in the waning seconds as the Rain or Shine Elasto Painters hung tough in the endgame to oust the GlobalPort Batang Pier, 108-106, last night in the 38th PBA Governors’ Cup at the Mall of Asia Arena.
Norwood finished with just nine points but delivered the goods when it mattered most as the twice-to-beat Painters advanced to the best-of-five semifinal round opposite the Petron Blaze Boosters, who also hung on to beat the Barangay Ginebra Kings, 101-94, in yesterday’s second game.
The Boosters erected leads of as many as 25 in the third but the Gin Kings came to within a point in the fourth behind the leadership of court general LA Tenorio.
But Ginebra ran out of steam late in the fourth as Petron escaped with the victory.
Cebuano Junemar Fajardo had 20 points for Petron but fouled out with three minutes left. Arwind Santos was chosen Best Player of the Game after finishing with 17 points, 13 rebounds and four blocked shots.
The Batang Pier, meanwhile, were in control of the match early but slowly lost grip of the game following the ejection of head coach Junel Baculi due to two technical fouls.
Prior to his crucial basket, Norwood failed to give Rain or Shine what could have been the insurance baskets as he only made one of two free throws that gave the Painters a shaky 104-101 lead inside the final minute.
Markeith Cummings converted a layup that pushed Batang Pier to within 103-104. Norwood redeemed himself from the previous play when he sank a triple that gave the Painters with a 107-103 lead with only 17.8 seconds left.
After an empty GlobalPort possession, Ryan Araña made one of two free throws to give the Painters a five-point cushion before Cummings finished the scoring with a buzzer-beating triple.
Arizona Red topped the Painters with 25 markers, Araña added 16, while Paul Lee, Jervy Cruz and Chris Tiu added 14, 12 and 10, respectively./EDITORIAL ASSISTANT CALVIN D. CORDOVA
