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The Rain or Shine Elasto Painters prevailed in a battle of cellar-dwellers, posting a 92-84 come-from-behind win over the Coca-Cola Tigers last night in the 35th PBA Philippine Cup at the Araneta Coliseum.
The Painters ended their first round of elimination campaign with two wins and seven losses. The team's other win was a resounding one?an 86-81 thumping of the erstwhile unbeaten and league-leaders Alaska Aces.
Rain or Shine leaned on the brilliant performance of Fil-Am guard Solomon Mercado, who came up with his best game in the tournament by tallying 24 points, eight assists and three rebounds.
Mercado's bunch of assists included a nifty alley-oop pass to high-flying teammate Gabe Norwood in a critical stretch in the fourth.
Mercado's pass led to a thunderous two-handed dunk by Norwood, giving the Painters an 87-80 lead in the final 1:50.
The Tigers rallied in the closing seconds but Mercado helped Rain or Shine seal the win when he completed a breakaway layup for a 89-83 Painters lead, time down to 28.2 seconds.
Jeffrie Chan and veteran forward Eddie Laure backed Mercado with 16 and 11 points, respectively.
The Tigers tasted their fourth straight loss to drop to 1-7 (win-loss).
Coke outplayed Rain or Shine in the first half and erected a 48-36 lead going into the final half.
But Coke went ice-cold in the third, allowing the Painters to steal the lead going into the fourth, 60-58?a lead Rain or Shine didn't relinquish.
Mark Macapagal led the Tigers with 16, Larry Rodriguez added 15, Alex Cabagnot had 13, while Dennis Espino chipped in 10.
