MANILA: A rookie Fil-American point guard gave Rain Or Shine the debut it has been longing for.
But, sorry, it wasn’t Gabe Norwood.
Solomon Mercado dropped 29 points and had seven rebounds in a scintillating first professional outing last night, leading the Elasto Painters to a 120-102 mangling of Air21 in a highly-physical PBA Philippine Cup game at the Cuneta Astrodome.
With practically the entire Air21 defense seemed to have been prepared on stopping Norwood, Mercado had a field day after getting very little attention as the Painters, formerly the whipping boy Welcoat Dragons, showed early life.
Mercado’s first game was actually the best debut seen by this league in a rookie since Asi Taulava scored 32 points and had 20 rebounds in a 90-64 win by Talk ’N Text over Tanduay in the 1999 All-Filipino inaugurals.
That 18-point margin of victory tied the franchise’s biggest winning margin, an 82-64 demolition job of Barangay Ginebra in this tournament last season.
Rain Or Shine thus joined opening-day winner Talk ’N Text for the early lead, also the first time that this has happened to the franchise. Also notching a first win was Alaska, which came back from 19 points down to nip San Miguel, 85-84, in the second game.
It was another sorry loss for the rock-solid Beermen, who further beefed up their squad in the off-season with the acquisition of big men Mick Pennisi and Jay Washington but couldn’t get a crucial defensive rebound in the dying seconds.
San Miguel sent Jeffrey Cariaso to the line with 7.8 seconds left and the score pegged at what proved to be the final count. Cariaso, a former Rookie of the Year seeing the final seasons of his career, uncharacteristically missed both free throws.
But instead of the Beermen clamping down on the lane, the 6-foot Willie Miller was able to snare the offensive board and leave just one second on the clock before being fouled. He intentionally missed both charities and gave San Miguel no chance to call for time.
Meanwhile, Talk ’N Text got the lift it needed from reliable gunslingers Ren-Ren Ritualo and Mac Cardona in a 98-97 decision of Coca-Cola at the Araneta Coliseum Saturday night.
The Tropang Texters, as what the former Phone Pals will now be known, won over the Tigers and Taulava for the first time since Talk ‘N Text traded away the hulking 6-foot-10 center last year.
Jared Dillinger, also a 6-foot-5 point guard picked second behind Norwood in the Draft, and fellow rookies Jason Castro and Rob Reyes also came up with respectable debuts that helped the Texters.
“One win doesn’t mean that we are going to have a breakout season,” Rain Or Shine coach Caloy Garcia later told scribes. “The positive thing is that we know that we can play at this level.”
Playing point guard for most of the game, Norwood finished with just six points and three assists in 25 minutes. Another rookie, TY Tang had seven points, including a triple that sparked a second quarter run that kept the Painters in control.
“I told them not to be complacent because we will already be scouted in our next game,” Garcia said.
The game was so physical that three Air21 mainstays, led by the volatile Homer Se, were sent to the showers early because of unsportsmanlike plays.
Se elbowed Mark Andaya in the face, while Arwind Santos also gave Mercado an elbow in the fourth. Wynne Arboleda was the second player ejected after tackling Norwood hard with a clothesline.
