BURGER King ended its campaign in style after handing Rain or Shine a 132-118 pounding in their knockout match for third spot on Wednesday night in the 2008-09 Motolite-Philippine Basketball Association Fiesta Conference at the Araneta Coliseum.

Arwind Santos finished with 27 points, while six other Whopper players also came up with double figures as Burger King placed third for the third time in the league.

“Third place is good enough for this team. This is our first conference together and half of the team is new, and I think the room for improvement is really big for this team,” said coach Yeng Guiao, acquired by the Bert Lina franchise in the midseason from Barako Bull.

“We are looking forward to the next conference. We have the No. 1 pick in the draft, and I think we can compete next season,” he added.

Japeth Aguilar, the six-foot-nine forward from Western Kentucky University, looms as the top pick and Guiao is confident the son of former pro Peter will register for the August draft.

“The veterans Arwind Santos and Gary David, plus the newcomers like Aaron [Aban], Mark [Yee], Beau [Belga] and Eric [Rodriguez], these guys performed way beyond my expectations,” said Guiao.

David added 17 points, while Shawn Daniels chipped in 16 and 11 rebounds for Burger King. Rodriguez, Aban, Carlo Sharma and Yee also scored at least 10 markers for the Whopper.

Mark Isip and Ryan Arana fired a career-best 29 and 24 points, respectively, for the Elasto Painters, who had their best finish in a tournament since entering the league in 2006.

Rain or Shine actually played with a depleted lineup as Jay-R Reyes and Rob Wainwright were both under the weather, while top rookie Gabe Norwood was in uniform, but did not suit up because of fever.

Import Jai Lewis was also not feeling very well but still saw action and contributed 14 points and 11 rebounds for coach Caloy Garcia.

Burger King took the game away early in the first period, with Santos, David, Daniels and Rodriguez combining for 28 of the team’s 36 points against the 23-point output of the Elasto Painters.

The Whopper’s lead ballooned to 71-50 halftime.