Jay R. Gotera Saudi Gazette MANILA — There was plenty of rain and no shine at all for the Rain or Shine Elasto Painters Wednesday night as the Talk N Text Tropang Texters reasserted their mastery over their Finals' rival in the last PBA Philippine Cup. The Texters, who swept the Painters 4-0 to grab their third straight Philippine Cup championship, once again dominated their rivals, winning 86-76 in the PBA Commissioner's Cup at the Smart Araneta Center. TNT notched its second straight victory after losing back-to-back games and improved to a 4-3 win loss-card, catching up with the Meralco Bolts for fourth to fifth spot in the rankings. The loss was only the second in seven outings for the Painters who saw their five-game winning streak come to an abrupt end. They remained tied, however, with the Petron Blaze Boosters for second to third spot in the standings. Larry Fonacier and Jayson Castro spearheaded the TNT offense in the decisive fourth quarter when the Texters started to pull away. Fonacier scored eight of his 17 points in that quarter, while Castro finished with 11 points and five assists. With 2:21 left, Castro nailed a fade-away jumper that gave the Texters an 83-73 lead. Import Donnel Harvey then drilled a three-pointer to extend TNT's lead to 86-73 as the Painters bowed their heads in defeat. Harvey top-scored for the Texters with 23 points. The Painters played minus head coach Yeng Guiao, who had to fly to the United States to attend to an urgent personal matter. Guiao is expected to return Thursday in time for the Painters' next game against Petron Blaze Saturday. Import Bruno Sundov led Rain or Shine with 25 points and eight rebounds. Unfortunately, he was the lone Painter who finished in double digits. TNT head coach Norman Black credited the win to his team's improving defense, proof of which was the Texters limiting the Painters to scoring only 29 out of 83 shots from the field for a less than 35 percent shooting percentage. In the final six minutes of the game, the Painters could not shake off the suffocating TNT defense, converting only one field goal. In the first match of the Wednesday double-header, Ronjay Buenafe scored all 19 of his points in an explosive fourth quarter to power the Meralco Bolts to a 112-104 victory against the Barako Bull Energy Cola. After firing blanks for three quarters, Buenafe suddenly caught fire in the final canto, sinking a variety of shots, including three of four shots from three-point range. Import Eric Dawson led the Bolts with 27 points, while Chris Ross added 17 markers. Reynel Hugnatan and Mac Cardona chipped in with 13 and 12 points, respectively. Meralco thus notched its third straight win and improved to 4-3. Barako Bull suffered its fourth straight defeat and fell to solo seventh place in the standings with a 3-5 record. The loss came despite the PBA career-high 37 points unloaded by Barako Bull import Evan Brock.
