By REYNALD MAGALLON
Rain or Shine head coach Yeng Guiao was left amused just by the way his charges pulled off a stunning 115-111 escape against Barangay Ginebra — a team he deemed as the favorite in the semis matchup.
The Elasto Painters went on a 13-4 finishing kick to take away the win from the Kings who still led 107-102 in the last 2:23 of the contest.
Up against a team brimming with talent from its coaches led by winningest mentor in Tim Cone, to the players spearheaded by its resident import in Justin Brownlee and Best Player of the Conference contender RJ Abarrientos, Guiao couldn’t be any happier seeing his team hold its ground.
“To play a team like Ginebra, goat import, goat coach, half of the Gilas team, the probable best player of the conference in their team. So, sino ba kami? Lumaban lang tayo,” said Guiao.
“Ito yung mga pinabili lang ng suka nakarating dito sa semis,” he added.
But it seemingly took everything from ROS just to draw first blood in their best-of-seven affair. Playing with a depleted frontline with the absence of Caelan Tiongson and the injury to Luis Villegas, import Jaylen Johnson had to do the heavy lifting with his conference-high 40 points.
Jhonard Clarito also had his conference-best of 25 while Gian Mamuyac added 18 points.
“Ang (gusto) lanv naman namin is show up and compete,” said Guiao.
“I thought they shot really well, especially RJ. We couldn’t find a solution to RJ initially. Kay JB hirap rin kami maka matchup but I’m really proud of the guys,” added the veteran mentor. Game 2 of the series is on Friday, May 22 at the Mall of Asia Arena and Guiao hopes his team can replicate the same effort to take a 2-0 advantage.
“Tingnan natin hanggang saan tayo. At least na ilusot namin yung Game 1. Naka isang tsamba. Tingnan natin ilang tsamba ang kaya namin,” he added.
