THE Hong Kong Bay Area Dragons routed Rain or Shine, 126-96, on Friday to advance to the best-of-five semifinals of the Philippine Basketball Association Commissioner’s Cup at the Philsports Arena in Pasig City.
The top-seeded Dragons didn’t blink on the way to a 30-point crushing of the No. 8 Elasto Painters. They will face either San Miguel Beer or Converge.
Local Hayden Joel Blankley fired a game-high 47 points–36 he made in the second half—and 10 rebounds while import Andrew Nicholson added 32 points before sitting out the entire fourth quarter.
Glen Robertson Yang tallied 13 points, 10 assists and six rebounds to lead the Dragons.
Bay Area head coach Brian Goorjian praised Rain or Shine for fighting hard in trying to prolong the series.
“Respect to Rain or Shine. But we shot the hell out of the ball tonight. They were competitive and they played us tough. Their coach’s game plan was very, very good,” said Goorjian referring to Bay Area’s 46 of 83 shooting from the field—including 21 out of 41 triples.
They also outrebounded the Elasto Painters, 55-35, and scored 16 inside points.
The Dragons led by as many as 34 points, 85-51, early in the third quarter.
Rey Nambatac led Rain or Shine with 19 points and import Ryan Pearson had 15 points.