VICTORIAS City, Negros Occidental: Team Philippines has the firepower, and no one will dispute that fact now.

Coach Yeng Guiao, though, just has one remaining unfulfilled wish: For someone to show him if his team has the composure to go with its talent.

The Nationals hardly worked up a sweat in dispatching the North All-Stars last night in this quaint city, surging ahead late in the first period for a 98-80 victory at the start of the three-game PBA All-Star Week at the Victorias Sports and Cultural Center.

Mick Pennisi hit all of his 15 points from beyond three-point range, the first four coming when the Nationals overhauled an 11-point deficit and when they broke away to earn Most Valuable Player honors.

Team Philippines bucked a slow start that had the Nationals staring at a 4-15 deficit before coach Yeng Guiao made one key move that had his team zooming to leads of as many as 20 later to make it a ho-hum game.

“They (Northerners) are very talented, but they lack practice (together),” Guiao told reportewrs. “What we want right now is a close game, a close endgame, so that we can see how this team responds to the pressure.”

The game was supposed to be the first true test for the Nationals, since they played a squad made up of PBA players whom Guiao did not consider for the RP Team. It was also reinforced by imports Tiras Wade of Talk ‘N Text, outgoing Purefoods import Jhamar Thorpe, and burly Shawn Daniels of Burger King. Thorpe led the Northerners with 16 points, with Paul Artadi backing him up with 13. Wade scored just nine and Daniels was ineffective with just two markers.

But the North stars simply did not have the cohesion to match up with the Nationals, though they tried hard, especially so after Talk ‘N Text team owner Manny Pangilinan promised each player a bonus of P10,000 for winning.

Gabe Norwood tossed 13 points and two others finished in twin digits for Guiao, whose wards next face the South stars tomorrow in Panabo, Davao del Norte. And like North coach Chot Reyes before him, the South’s Tim Cone promised to go all out and give the Nationals the workout they deserve. But can they do it?

“We will go out there and play hard,” Cone told Arab News over the phone, a few hours before he departs for Davao . “By playing hard, win or lose, we would have helped the Philippine team.”

Cone will also have the benefit of help from three imports, Rosell Ellis of Alaska , James Penny of Coca-Cola and Jeff Varem of Barako Bull. But even then, the multi-titled mentor who was also a national coach in the past, thinks that the Nationals have a decided edge come game time.

“They (Nationals) are going to be a lot more organized, that’s for sure,” Cone explained. “And they have got great talent there already. That team has a good balance that they can beat any team with imports.”

Kelly Williams, the 6-foot-7 Sta. Lucia forward, also shone and had some gravity-defying moves that fans here appreciated.

The reigning MVP hit a triple that beat the first quarter horn, which signaled the start of the breakaway and left the Northerners eating their dust.

Pennisi then opened up the second period with back-to-back triples to ignite a telling 14-2 run that had the Nationals seizing a 66-46 lead with still 6:24 left in the third.