Rain or Shine co-owner Yu ready for Purefoods challenge

MANILA, Philippines – Rain or Shine co-owner Raymund Yu believes the Elasto Painters are ready for an all-out war against one of the powerhouse squads in the league today – the Purefoods Tender Juicy Giants – even without firebrand guard Sol Mercado. “We’re still in high spirit at this stage," Yu told GMANews.TV. “We just have to continue to play hard and not mind whatever deficiency the team is having right now." Not even the long break was enough for Mercado to recuperate from his hamstring injury. The rookie guard has yet to see action in Rain or Shine’s quarterfinals series against Purefoods and his teammates were hoping he could come back for the deciding Game 3 on Sunday. “He’s not 100 percent and mahihirapan naman kami if pipilitin natin. We just have to live with the fact that he’s out for the series," said Yu. The Welbest-owned franchise, which won numerous titles carrying the Welcoat brand in the PBL, is playing its finest PBA season after acquiring Gabe Norwood and TY Tang from the rookie draft and securing the services of Mercado via a trade for Joe Devance. The Elasto Painters are in their second straight quarterfinals appearance but are the underdogs. But Yu and his troops don’t mind playing the “giant killer" role. Despite being dragged to a winner-take-all encounter, the Elasto Painters proved that they can compete even with a depleted line up against one of the league’s giants. They won the first game of the series, 96-87, and just fell short of completing a comeback in Game 2 where Purefoods squeezed out an 84-82 victory. The Elasto Painters were seconds away from handing the Giants possibly their most embarrassing loss of the conference until former best import Marquin Chandler bailed Purefoods out of trouble. Yu hopes to get the best out of everyone in Sunday’s rubber match at the Big Dome. – GMANews.TV