Rain or Shine pulls off steal vs Titan Ultra

MANILA, Philippines — Rain or Shine was about to fall into an ambush by Titan Ultra until Santi Santillan and Anton Asistio came forward  to save the day.

Santillan’s 13-point outburst and Asistio’s cold-blooded free throw shooting in the fourth were key as the Elasto Painters rallied to a tight 112-111 win over the Giant Risers in the PBA Philippine Cup last night.

In scraping to victory after trailing by as many as 19, coach ’s charges went on a two-game run and joined Magnolia, TNT and Converge atop the leaderboard at 3-1.

The bungled job, meanwhile, dragged the Giant Risers to their third straight defeat after starting the season with a 100-96 upset of Meralco.

Santillan, who fired four triples in the game-changing 31-19 closing barrage that salvaged the game for ROS, finished with 21 and hauled down nine rebounds to back up Adrian Nocum’s 24. Jhonard Clarito banged in 19.

Asistio scored 11 but delivered the most crucial points of all – four free throws off a foul by Josh Munzon with 2.1 seconds left that put the E-Painters ahead, 112-111, after trailing by three.

The Giants still had a chance to salvage the game but Calvin Abueva missed his attempt at the buzzer.

Guiao lauded the E-Painters for overcoming their early struggles, especially against Titan’s outside shooting, in bringing this one to bed.

“I keep telling them a good team is one that finds a way to win despite things not going their way,” he said.

ROS put to waste the 31-18 double-double of Abueva, the near triple-double of Munzon (15-13-8) and the 21-point eruption of Aljun Melecio.