Ginebra off to great start, routs newcomer Global Port

Barangay Ginebra San Miguel coach Siot Tanquingcen’s main worry coming into the brand-new PBA season was if he could get his wards to play with a high level of chemistry.
Last night, with the largest opening day crowd in recent memory showing its appreciation, Tanquingcen saw a glimpse of how great his team could be, and how each and every member was willing to share the ball.
With six players shooting in twin digits and the team totalling its highest assists production in four years, the Gin Kings ran roughshod over newcomer Global Port for a 110-90 victory before 18,901 paying fans at the Araneta Coliseum.
“We got over the opening day distractions, the jitters,” Tanquingcen told reporters. “Yes, it’s good to start this way.
“The chemistry I was talking about was how they would play on the court,” he continued. “I mean, they get along pretty well off of it, but I didn’t know how they would play together. That thing takes time.”
Mark Caguioa scored 18 points, seven of them in a telling 14-2 run late in the fourth quarter that put the game to bed for Ginebra.
And new acquisition LA Tenorio, who was traded by Alaska less than three weeks before opening day, scored just two points but had nine rebounds and 10 assists, with four of those feeds coming in that crippling run.
“That’s why we worked very hard to get him (in the pre-season trade with Alaska),” Tanquingcen said. “That’s his value to this team. He brings a lot of intangibles to the game, the poise in the endgame.”
The much-hyped rookies of the Kings, Chris Ellis and Keith Jensen, Fil-Americans they picked sixth and eighth overall, respectively, in the Draft, scored a combined 25 points and looked to be full of promise.
Willie Miller, the former two-time MVP who was shipped to Global Port involved in the Tenorio trade that also included JV Casio going to Alaska, led the Batang Pier with 26 points.
Gary David, though, struggled big time in the face of the porous Ginebra defense, held to just one field goal and nine points for the game. David came into the season as last year’s leading scorer with close to 26 points a game.
But that triple, which came at the 5:19 mark of the fourth, put Global Port within 86-94, before the Kings came up with that finishing kick that completely snuffed the fight out of the Batang Pier.
Rico Maierhofer scattered 14 points that went with 11 rebounds for Ginebra, sixth place here last season, with Billy Mamaril also scoring 14 and plucking down 12 rebounds.
The 32 assists that Ginebra totalled was its biggest in four years, and Global Port showed none of that chemistry by dishing off just 12 assists for the night.