The Llamados, who were known as the Purefoods Tender Juicy Giants when they swept Alaska in the Philippine Cup Finals last month, played steady all game and outlasted Sta. Lucia, 86-79, just a few hours after the Aces failed to get their acts together against Talk ’N Text.
Lorenzo Wade was respectable in his first game on Philippine soil, shooting 20 points and grabbing 10 rebounds for the Llamados, who played without Kerby Raymundo but showed practically no effects of it to deal the Realtors their third loss in four games.
Former Most Valuable Player James Yap, who also won the Best Player of the Conference award in the Philippine Cup, hit 18 points, the same total churned out by Nino ‘KG’ Canaleta, who played just 18 minutes coming off the bench.
“We understand that we are not the champions in this tournament,” coach Ryan Gregorio told reporters. “We buckled down to defense once again, and that’s the way we truly play.”
Anthony Johnson paced the Realtors with 26 points, but the ball was effectively taken out of his hands at crunchtime by the unforgiving Derby Ace defense. Only two other players scored in twin digits for Sta. Lucia.
The Realtors also aided their downfall, missing five straight attempts from the foul line inside the final three minutes which would have given them the lead.
Kelly Williams, who finished with 12 markers, missed two like Johnson. Josh Urbiztondo, the undrafted freshman who is in strong contention for the Rookie of the Year award, also had one miss in that stretch.
“We’re playing again on Friday (tomorrow) and what is nice about it is that we know how to play back-to-back games,” Gregorio added, referring to their clash with Air21.
The game was tight even though the Llamados were in command all throughout.
Sta. Lucia actually got to within three points nearing the final three minutes only to lapse into those comedy of misses made by its best players on the floor, which allowed the Llamados to pull away courtesy of Canaleta and Roger Yap.
Canaleta hit nine of his total in the final quarter.
And while the Llamados played with practically no rust because of a three-week layoff, the Aces couldn’t find their bearings early and trailed big to lose, 100-92, to the Tropang Texters in the first game.
Shawn Daniels was as offensive minded as he could be for the Texters, shooting 25 points to go with 15 rebounds and lead a balanced attack that had Alaska befuddled from beginning to end.
Mac Cardona tossed in 20 points and had seven assists, and three other locals were good for 10 points or more as the Texters improved to 2-2, getting back on track after suffering a close loss to San Miguel that had players and coach Chot Reyes shouting at each other in the sidelines.
Reyes then readily dedicated the victory to team owner Manny V. Pangilinan, who is embroiled in an embarrassing controversy after delivering a “copied” speech in the commencement exercises of Ateneo University late last month.
“We all know the issue surrounding our boss,” Reyes said. “And the best way for us to show our support for him is for us to win and put a smile back on his face.”
Alaska trailed by as many as 26 points in the third quarter before making a run at it near the end.
Though it is not exactly the way Tim Cone wanted his players to open up their campaign here, he still found something to smile about in the form of 36 points and 25 rebounds from import Diamon Simpson.
“Diamon is a monster,” said Cone of his young reinforcement. “He can play. He can put it on the floor, he’s a dynamite on the offensive boards. There are very little things that he can’t do. Now if we can just harness his skill with the team.
“Am I disappointed (because we lost)? Yes. But am I discouraged. No.”
Simpson shot 12-of-22 from the field and made 12 of his 19 attempts from the free-throw line and 13 of his rebounds came off the offensive glass.
Simpson, though, couldn’t do it by himself.
LA Tenorio and Sonny Thoss were held scoreless in the first half while Willie Miller was limited to only three points in the first two quarters which enabled the Texters to gain control early.
