PBAPC16 QF: 3 Rain or Shine vs 10 Blackwater

Photo credit to PBA.Inquirer.net

Talk about having to go through a Rite of Passage for the Blackwater Elite: though they just earned their first playoff appearance in their young franchise history, they find themselves with a twice-to-beat disadvantage versus perennial title contenders, the Rain or Shine Elastopainters.

Elite head coach Leo Isaac will need to squeeze all he can from main guys Carlo Lastimosa (23mpg 16ppg 3rpg 2apg), JP Erram (26mpg 12ppg 9rpg), Art dela Cruz (22mpg 11ppg 4rpg), Reil Cervantes (19mpg 9ppg 3rpg) and whoever among Raphy Reyes, Keith Agovida and Jason Melano are up to the challenge of locking horns with a physical RoS group.



A lot will be riding on the Elite's linchpin, Mike Cortez (34mpg 9ppg 4rpg 5apg) but he will probably be preoccuppied in trying to outsmart/ negate RoS' wave after waver of high IQ point guards (Chris Tiu is having his best season, while Maverick Ahanmisi, in a way, appears to be a carbon copy of the Cool Cat- solid overall, nothing too fancy, just efficient floor leadership).

*And if no one takes any offense in this, we would like to dub Maverick Ahanmisi as the Black Panther.*

Over at the RoS front, head coach Yeng Guiao is due for a Philippine Cup title. Seriously. And all biases aside, we feel that he has a solid chance now more than ever thanks to his balanced group of big guards and heavy frontline men.

Jeffrei Chan (23mpg 14ppg 4rpg) and Jericho Cruz (24mpg 14ppg) have taken turns scoring from the outside while RoS bigs Beau Belga (24mpg 12ppg 6rpg), JayR Quinahan (24mpg 10ppg 6rpg), Raymond Almazan (25mpg 11ppg 9rpg) and Jewel Ponferada have all combined to provide stellar, consistent play in the paint. Those four bigs have been so good as of late, that there is hardly any drop from RoS' first and second groups, with their guards basically free to just score at will knowing that their bigs have their backs at all times.

Still, we are hoping that the Elite has something up their sleeves though it will be tough to overcome an RoS side that is looking to bounce back after losing their right to a possible bye into the later rounds.

Reil Cervantes highlight! Show us some Reil Cervantes highlight!

Prediction: RoS to advance.