Meg Derby Ace Llamados nailed their fourth straight win, beating the Rain or Shine Elasto Painters, 94-86, Friday night in the PBA Philippine Cup at the Cuneta Astrodome. Peter June Simon continued to wax hot, scoring 25 points on 11-of-18 shooting to push the Llamados to solo fourth place in the standings with a 5-5 win-loss card. Simon earlier exploded for a season-high 42 points in a 102-97 Derby Ace win over Air21 last Nov. 10. He followed that up two days later with a 16-point output in the Llamados' 85-73 win over Powerade. Four other Llamados scored in double-digits in Friday's game with Jonas Villanueva adding 17 points, James Yap with 15, and Rico Maierhofer and Roger Yap with 12 apiece. Their fifth loss in nine games sent the Painters slipping into a tie for fifth to seventh place in the company of the Alaska Aces and the Meralco Bolts. The Painters played minus their key scorer Sol Mercado who is in Guangzhou, China as part of the Philippine national basketball team playing in the Asian Games. J.R. Reyes topscored for the Painters with 15 points while Gabe Norwood chipped in 12. In the first game of the double-header, the Air21 Express snapped a three-game losing streak, slipping past the Powerade Tigers, 98-94, in overtime. Top rookie pick Rabeh Al-Hussaini topscored for the Express with 22 points but was pulled out from the game after hurting his left foot with four minutes left in the fourth quarter. The win was Air21's fourth in 10 games as the Express climbed to solo eighth in the standings, leaving Powerade (3-7) and Barako Bull (2-7) as the last two teams in the standings facing elimination. Ronjay Buenafe scored eight of his 14 points in the fourth quarter while Leo Najorda buried a basket with 23 seconds remaining to force overtime. Air21won despite the conference-high 32 points scored by Powerade's Gary David.
