By Josh Castro
GlobalPort fell short of a huge comeback as Rain Or Shine escaped with a 104-98 win in their PBA Commissioner's Cup match at the Smart Araneta Coliseum in Quezon City.
The Batang Pier trailed by 17 points, 58-75, after the third quarter as the Elasto Painters limited their opponents to only six points in the said period.
But the Batang Pier mounted a 17-7 run to cut the lead to seven, 82-75, midway into the fourth quarter.
Shots from Rick Jackson and Paul Lee momentarily stretched Rain Or Shine's lead back to 11, 87-76, but C.J. Leslie and Terrence Romeo sparked a 12-4 GlobalPort run to chop the gap back to three, 91-88, with 1:15 remaining.
Jonathan Uyloan drained a long three-pointer at the shotclock buzzer to extend the lead to six with 1:07 left. Jackson followed with two charities to widen the advantage to eight.
But Romeo responded with another triple as the Elasto Painters' lead became five anew, 96-91, with 50.4 seconds left.
Lee scored two more free throws for the Elasto Painters to push the lead back to seven. Romeo, however, jacked up another trey to bring the gap back to four, 98-94.
Lee made another pair of charities to move the lead back to six. Jewel Ponferrada split his own free throws to trim the lead to five, 100-95, with 25.2 seconds left.
The Batang Pier, however, had another crack as Uyloan only made one of two free throws in the next play. Leslie, however, only came up with a split in his own trip to the free throw line. Stanley Pringle came to the rescue and made the follow-up to cut the lead back to three, 101-98, with 18.7 seconds to go.
But Pringle misfired in the next GlobalPort offensive as he airballed a triple after two more Lee free throws to put an end to its fourth quarter run.
Lee finished with 25 points on 5-of-10 field goals and a perfect 10-of-10 free throw clip for Rain Or Shine, which notched its second straight win after a conference-opening loss.
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