Rain or Shine's Gabe Norwood (left) puts up a shot against Purefoods forward Marc Pingris in Wednesday's PBA quarterfinal match. The Elasto Painters won, 95-92. (Photo by ALI VICOY)

The Purefoods Giants may have to find new ways to beat the Rain or Shine Elasto Painters than wait for them to fold in the dying seconds.

Learning from their agonizing loss in Game Two, the Elasto Painters hung on tenaciously to a precious fourth quarter lead Wednesday night to deny the Giants a sweep of their KFC-PBA quarterfinal series, 95-92, at the Araneta Coliseum.

The Giants still lead the best-of-five playoffs, 2-1, but should now sense some vulnerability following Jeff Chan’s red-hot scoring in the final 12 minutes and James Yap’s 0-of-8 three-point shooting throughout the game.

Gabe Norwood, who had 16 points behind Chan’s 17, came out of nowhere to slam in a missed layup by Chan with 4.6 seconds remaining to give Rain or Shine a five-point lead, 95-90.

And unlike in Sunday’s 95-94 loss, when Eddie Laure fell for a head-and-shoulder fake by Yap, fouling the Purefoods hotshot and sending him to the line for three free throws with a second left, Laure was on the bench this time while the icy Yap failed to thaw.

Yap missed his eighth triple in the final play and namesake Roger Yap converted the putback before the buzzer.

“I was just at the right time for that,” said Norwood of his rim-rattling jam.

“We’re not looking at the standings,” said Rain or Shine coach Caloy Garcia. “I still believe we have what it takes to come back. We just have to compete hard every game.” Chan showed the way back for the Painters in Game Three.

The rookie from Far Eastern drained five 3-point shots, lighting up the Big Dome with four in the fourth quarter as Rain or Shine completed a rally from 11 points down, 70-59, midway in the third quarter, to go up, 85-77, with 5:25 left.

“Hinintay ko lang pumasok yung una kong tres kasi ang instructionnaman nina coach e tumira pag open,” said Chan.

Mark Telan came off the bench early in the fourth period and provided rebounding and defensive presence up until the last three minutes when he was ejected for incurring a second technical after tangling with Purefoods guard Paul Artadi.

Norwood reflected a bit on what could have been.

“We could have won Game One and the Game Two heartbreaker was there for the taking,” he said. “ It could have been us sweeping them. It’s really a matter of us playing hard.”

Purefoods’ experience will be the key in Game Four on Fri, Garcia said.

“But we’re learning fast from our mistakes of crumbling in the endgame.”

Kerby Raymundo, rookie Rico Maierhofer, and Peter June Simon sat out the game with various injuries but are expected to be back to frustrate the Painters in their bid to send the playoffs into a do-or-die fifth game.

Five points each from Norwood, Ty Tang and Laure during a 27-8 comeback in the first quarter erased a 17-5 deficit as the Painters took control of their fate.

The Giants’ University of the East connection – Yap, Artadi, and Niño Canaleta – worked early to leave Rain or Shine out in the cold in their quarterfinal series.

But the Painters shot 13 of 17 from the free throw line in the first 24 minutes to offset a 35 percent field goal shooting in the second period, while the Giants floundered 7-of-12 and committed nine turnovers, four by Artadi. (Tempo Sports)

The scores:
First Game
RAIN OR SHINE 95 – Chan 17, Norwod 16, Hrabak 15, Mercado 11, Tang 10, Araña 8, Laure 7, Telan 5, Cruz 4, Reyes 2, Ibañes 0.
PUREFOODS 92 – Canaleta 18, Yap J. 17, Yap R. 17, Artadi 14, Reavis 13, Pingris 9, Fernandez 2, Adducul 1, Allado 1, Timberlake 0, Salvador 0.
Quarters: 29-25, 50-49, 68-72, 95-92.