WITH nowhere to go and the clock winding down, Rain or Shine guard Anton Asistio was forced to hoist a shot from beyond the arc. Proving that Lady Luck was smiling at them, Asistio drew a foul from the harassing defense of NLEX star Robert Bolick.

The Elasto Painters eventually outplayed the Road Warriors in overtime last night, essaying a 123-114 victory to boost their bid for the top spot in Group B of the PBA Governors’ Cup at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium in Manila.

Asistio canned all three of his free throws that pegged the final count with 39.4 seconds to go—to the chagrin of Bolick and the rest of NLEX which battled back from a 12-point fourth quarter hole to force an extension.

Only for the Road Warriors to fade in the extra period against the Yeng Guiao-mentored Rain or Shine’s blazing finish led by the likes of import Aaron Fuller, Adrian Nocum, and Asistio.

Meralco seeks to stretch its winning skein to five when it takes on Converge today in Group A while Ginebra eyes to redeem itself from a 49-point humiliation to San Miguel Beer the last time out against Phoenix in Group B at the same venue.

This kind of a nip-and-tuck tiff should bolster the Painters who rebounded from a 102-124 ripping at the hands of the Kings last Friday and jacked up their mark to 6-2 in a tie with the Beermen.

“Good test for us. This is a good experience. We have to learn how to win close games, hindi ko alam how we survived iyong import nila who played a monster game. Medyo napagod lang siguro noong bandang huli,” Guiao said. “Si Robert Bolick also was a headache for us. What we tried to do was to hang in there.

“Ang sabi ko, dikit lang tayo. Sa ganda ng inilalaro ng import nila tapos may support pa sa locals, maybe at some point they will miss shots, they will tire out. That’s our opportunity to have our own run,” he added.

The Road Warriors absorbed their fourth straight loss, counting a 114-119 defeat to SMB Wednesday last week and slipped to 3-5.

Asistio notched 25 points built on five triples, to go with three rebounds and two assists while Fuller turned in a double-double of 23 markers and 25 boards.

The likes of Jhonard Clarito, Felix Pangilinan-Lemetti, Caelan Tiongson, and Nocum also did their part with 15, 14, 11, and 11 points, respectively, as the Painters repeated over NLEX after scoring a 124-105 rout when they first met last Aug. 28.

Rain or Shine trailed 56-61 at the half but grabbed an 89-83 lead going into the final stanza.

For a while, the victory seemed to be in the bag for the Painters after they took a 105-93 edge on a Nocum layup at the 5:19 mark of the fourth.

But behind Bolick and new reinforcement DeQuan Jones, the Road Warriors razed the deficit.

An Enoch Valdez basket gave NLEX a 110-108 buffer, but a Clarito counter bucket knotted the match in the last 19 ticks.

Jones, who replaced Myke Henry, dazzled in his debut on Philippine soil with 49 points and 11 caroms while Bolick barely missed a triple-double with 28 markers, 11 rebounds and nine dimes.

The picture is getting clearer for Rain or Shine—win its last two outings and the Painters can end up as the No. 1 seed in its group in the Last Eight.