By JAY R. GOTERA
MANILA — A rim-destroying dunk from Tony Mitchell provided the exclamation point to the Star Hotshots’ 99-93 victory over the Rain or Shine Elasto Painters in a PBA Commissioner’s Cup road game in Batangas City Saturday night.
The Star import’s thunderous slam off a Mark Barroca miss in the last two minutes of the game broke the pole supporting the backboard, collapsing the rim. Michell was fouled and he sank the bonus free throw to push Star’s lead to seven with 1:44 left—enough cushion to foil a last-ditch ROS rally.
Mitchell finished with 21 points on a near-perfect 8-of-9 shooting along with 18 rebounds.
Paul Lee made up for the absence of Gilas players Allein Maliksi and Jio Jalalon and injured forward Marc Pingris as he led the Hotshots with 23 points, four rebounds and five assists against his former team.
Star thus nailed its sixth win in eight games, tying TNT at fourth to fifth place in the standings.
ROS absorbed a second straight loss and slid to solo seventh place with a 4-4 card.
The Painters razed a 14-point deficit to knot the score at 90¬all with 2:55 left. But the Hotshots went on a 7-0 run capped by Mitchell’s monster dunk.
Jeff Chan and import Shawn Taggart led ROS with 20 points each in the loss.
4-team trade
The still-winless NLEX Road Warriors pressed on with their roster overhaul, trading away three of their top players—Sean Anthony, Bradwyn Guinto and Garvo Lanete—and getting Larry Fonacier from TNT and JR Quinahan from GlobalPort in return.
A day earlier, NLEX traded away frontliners Glenn Khobuntin and Eric Camson to be able to acquire top Mahindra gunner Alex Mallari.
The four-team, seven-player trade was approved by the PBA Saturday.
Here is a summary of Saturday’s player trade, which also involved Meralco:
— NLEX got Quinahan, Fonacier, Mahindra’s 2017 second round pick, and GlobalPort’s 2019 second round pick.
— Meralco got Lanete.
— TNT got Anthony Semerad (from GlobalPort).
— GlobalPort got Anthony, Guinto, and Jonathan Grey (from Meralco).
With the trade, NLEX coach Yeng Guiao will be reunited with his old players Quinahan (Rain or Shine) and Fonacier (Red Bull).
GlobalPort appears to be the big winner in the trade, only giving up Semerad and a draft pick for three quality players—Anthony, Guinto and Grey.
Games Sunday: Blackwater Elite (2-6) vs. Mahindra Floodbuster (1-7) and Barangay Ginebra Kings (4-1) vs. Alaska Aces (4-2).
