Ibañes shines as Painters hold off Kings' uprising

source: gmanews.tv

There’s no way Rain or Shine would allow Barangay Ginebra steal another game at its expense. Jireh Ibañes, the Elasto Painters’ sparkplug from the bench, made sure about that.

Ibañes scored a team-high 15 points as the Elasto Painters held tougher down the stretch in preserving an 84-83 win over the hard-fighting Kings Sunday night in the PBA Fiesta Cup at the Araneta Coliseum.

Ibañes almost single-handedly carried the fight for Rain or Shine at the height of Ginebra’s big fourth quarter rally, accounting for the team’s final three points, including a tough drive to the basket off a transition that gave the Elasto Painters an 84-81 lead inside the final two minutes.

The Kings, who battled back from as much as 40-55 deficit early in the second half, made it a one-point game after Mark Caguioa sank the last of his game-high 28 markers with 68 seconds left.

But Ginebra failed to capitalize from there, botching its final three offensive plays, the last of which courtesy of a short Willie Miller jumper as time expired, finally putting an end to the Kings’ four-game winning run for an 8-5 card.

“This game really belongs to us," said Ibanes, reminded about the similar meeting between the two teams in the first round of the eliminations, when the Kings also came back from 16-points down and won, 100-98.

“The management and the coaching just have a complete trust in me. They told me to just wait for the right opportunity to come, and that opportunity came now," added the Rain or Shine guard, who was 6-of-8 from the field.

Ibañes averaged just 2.4 points in the Elasto Painters’ first 10 games in the eliminations, but his breakout game Sunday night allowed Rain or Shine to improve its record to 6-5.

Ibañes, the hero, almost ended up the goat as well.

After Milton Ambres missed on a corner three-pointer with 10 seconds left and the Kings down by just a point, Ibanes grabbed the rebound, scooted downcourt and was promptly fouled by Rudy Hatfield for two free throws to stop the clock.

But the Rain or Shine guard bungled the front-end of his charities, prompting him to intentionally miss the second foul throw as well.

Enrico Villanueva collared the board and called timeout, giving the Kings 1.2 seconds to go for a game-winning basket, a thing that never happened. – RCJ, GMANews.TV

The scores:

Rain or Shine 84 - Ibanes 15, Mercado 15, Norwood 13, Lewis 12, Arana 9, Tang 6, Chan 6, Reyes 5, Laure 3, Cruz 0, Hrabak 0, Telan 0.

Ginebra 83 - Caguioa 28, Ambres 20, Tubid 12, Miller 10, Wilson 3, Hatfield 3, De Ocampo 3, Mamaril 2, Helterbrand 2, Villanueva 0.

Quarters: 25-18, 49-40, 69-63, 84-83