The Powerade Tigers once again showed the never-say-die attitude reminiscent of league darlings Brgy. Ginebra as they climbed all the way back from a six-point deficit with a little over a minute left yesterday to stun the Rain or Shine (RoS) Elasto Painters, 110-108, in the best-of-seven semifinals series in the PBA Philippine Cup at the Araneta Coliseum.
The Tigers were at the cusp of imminent defeat with a, 100-106 deficit staring at their faces with less than two minutes remaining. However, Gary “El Granada” David conspired with rookies JV Casio and Marcio Lassiter to hack out the win for a 3-2 series lead. The Tigers are now just one win away from reaching the finals, an improbable feat for the lowest seed in the playoffs.
Gabe Norwood had a putback and a free-throw while Larry Rodriguez scored inside to give RoS a six-point lead but David struck swiftly with a three-pointer for a, 103-106 score. Norwood answered with a tough lay-in for a five-point Elasto Painters lead, but Casio, this year’s top pick, split his charities and then added a three-point play off a long jumper to slice the lead to one, 107-108, with 36.6 seconds remaining.
Later, a missed three-pointer by JR Quinahan set the table up for a fastbreak attack by Lassiter that saw him get fouled. He calmly made the free-throws to give the lead back to Powerade with 15.8 ticks left. RoS had a shot to reclaim the lead but Ronjay Buenafe missed an inside scoop.
After David grabbed the rebound and Lassiter split his charities, the Painters had two chances to either win the match or send it to overtime. However, Jeff Chan missed a baseline trey while Beau Belga muffed the potential game-tying jumper at the final buzzer.
David scored 28 points to lead Powerade. It was the first time in seven games wherein he failed to score 30 points or more. Casio added 25, 15 of which came in the third quarter when the Tigers rallied from a 46-53 halftime deficit to take an, 81-80 lead to the final stanza.
Quinahan paced the losing squad with 18 points.