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PBA Govs’ Cup: E-Painters fend off B-Pier uprising in nail-biter



By Ricky Manliguis

MANILA—Rain or Shine banked on its timely hits from the free throw line as it hacked out a pulsating 98-96 win over Global Port for its first win in the main offering of Friday’s Oppo PBA Governors’ Cup action at the Big Dome in Quezon City. 

Up 50-39 at the half, the Wel-Best franchise had to weather the Batang Pier assualt led by "Slash Brothers" Terrence Romeo and Stanley Pringle to trim the deficit to a solitary point, only to find a hero in Raymund Almazan in the crucial moments.

The fromer Letran Knight calmly sank two free throws off a foul from Billy Mamaril . Before Alamazan's trip, the team had missed half of its 32 tries from the stripe.  

Gobal Port battled tooth-and-nail in the second half, and had one last crack at the basketball to force, but Terrence Romeo's attempt was stymied by the ROS defense of Gabe Norwood and Jericho Cruz.  


“I told them Globalport will never give up because that’s a very-high-scoring team,” ROS coach Caloy Garcia said. 

“The offensive rebound of Raymond saved us today. We could have lost the game if he didn’t get the rebound, and they had the last shot" he added.

Debuting ROS import JD Weatherspoon dunked his way to 25 points, 15 rebounds and three assists in 38 minutes of action. Maverick Ahanmisi followed suit with 17 markers with four boards, four assists, a steal, and a block, with Almazan coming away with a double-double of 15 and 10.

Romeo and Pringle combined for 49 points to power the Batang Pier, which got little help from import Jabril Trawick, who struggled with foul troubled and finishing the match with only three points in 16 minutes.



The scores:

Rain Or Shine 98 – Weatherspoon 25, Ahanmisi 17, Almazan 15, Tiu 10, Chan 9, Washington 8, Cruz 4, Norwood 4, Ponferada 3, Yap 2, Belga 1

Global Port  96 – Romeo 28, Pringle 21, Anthony 12, Guinto 12, Arana 3, Mamaril 3, Trawick 3, Mamaril 2, Ababou 2, Van Opstal 0, Grey 0, Maierhofer 0

Quarterscores: 24-17, 50-39, 71-70, 98-96

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