Rain or Shine's Paul Lee makes an easy layup as teammates Raymond Almazan (L) and JR Quinahan (R) shut off Meralco's defenders from the paint in Tuesday night's PBA Commissioner's Cup semifinals action at the Smart-Araneta Coliseum. Jay R. Gotera Saudi Gazette MANILA — Using their vaunted dizzying running game to the hilt in the final quarter, the top-seeded Rain or Shine Elasto Painters left the fifth-seed Meralco Bolts biting the dust, 99-86, in Game 1 of their best-of-five semifinal series Tuesday night at the Smart-Araneta Coliseum. The Painters opened the fourth quarter with a 7-0 run to take an 81-71 lead and never looked back as they outscored the Bolts, 25-15, in that period. The Painters used speed as their primary weapon as shown by their huge 26-2 advantage. At the same time, Rain or Shine's unforgiving defense smothered Meralco import Josh Davis, limiting to just 11 points. In contrast, import Wayne Chism led a balanced ROS offensive with 18 points, 14 of them scored in the second half. Chism also posted 14 rebounds and three blocks. ROS head coach Yeng Guiao fielded all his players, with all except one – Jeff Chan, the hero in Sunday's game against Ginebra – scoring. Paul Lee had 14 while five others – Gabe Norwood, Chris Tiu, Jervy Cruz, Jericho Cruz and Raymond Almazan – scored eight or more points Veteran gunner Gary David led Meralco with 14 points but could only score five in the second half as he was handcuffed by his ROS defenders. The first two quarters saw the two squads fighting tooth and nail, resulting to a 49-all deadlock at halftime. The Painters finally got their running game at max speed as they padded their lead to nine, 74-65, in the third quarter. With 5:35 left in the game, Gabe Norwood nailed a three-pointer at the end of the shotclock to give ROS a 90-80. But the referees suddenly changed their verdict after reviewing the shot on video, nullifying the shot and calling for a 24-second violation instead. Undeterred, Norwood fired another three-pointer one minute later, and then Paul Lee scored on a transition basket to give ROS a 92-80 lead with 4:06 remaining. Chris Tiu and Chism then punched the hoop to help preserve the lead. Meanwhile, the Barangay Ginebra Kings made two key personnel moves Tuesday after suffering yet another early exit in a league conference despite their star-studded roster. First, the Ginebra management sacked Ato Agustin as head coach and named assistant coach Frankie Lim to replace Agustin who reentered the team last conference, taking over from Jeffrey Cariaso. Also Tuesday, Ginebra traded seldom-used wingmen Dylan Ababou and James Forrester for Barako Bull's first round pick in the 2015 Rookie Draft. Ababou, a former national team member and also a player of Barako Bull in his rookie season, and Forrester mostly stayed either on sick bay or the Ginebra bench because of knee injuries. Game Wednesday: Purefoods Star hotshots vs. Talk N Text Tropang Texters (Game 1 of best-of-5 semifinal series).
