CUMMINGS-LED GLOBALPORT BEATS AIR21 FOR CONFERENCE-DEBUT WIN ANEW
FOR the second straight conference Globalport won its opening assignment. Coach Junel Baculi believes things will turn out drastically different this time for his team.
The Batang Pier showed little ill effects of a massive re-tooling, fashioning a 101-94 victory over Air21 Wednesday in the kickoff match of the PBA Governors Cup at the Mall of Asia Arena.
Markeith Cummings wound up with a double-double of 37 points and 11 rebounds and Jay Washington, leading the seven new players in Globalport’s fold, was just a rebound shy of one in leading the sustained charge.
Air21 drew 31 points from Zach Graham and although only Vic Manuel and Carlo Sharma are the only new faces among the Express, they failed to display the same cohesion Globalport did.
Baculi said things should get better for his team as they try to fully put away their bottom finishes in their first two conferences with the league, including the mid-season Commissioner’s Cup, when they went on to win just two games.
“We’re just getting on building chemistry,” he said after the victory which ended an 11-game losing streak.
“If we can get Ws out of this, while we’re in the process of building chemistry, we’ll take that,” added Baculi. “We still have a lot of things to do in order to contend with the other big teams though. This is still a work in progress.”
Globalport’s cohesiveness will be tested anew with three games in a week’s time and Baculi is foremost among those eager to see how his team gets out of those. “We just have to go through that, see what happens,” he stated.
“I’m not promising anything, but we’ll be there to get those Ws.”
Washington, acquired in a trade with Petron Blaze, said he likes his new team’s attitude and agreed with Baculi in citing there’s still room for improvement.
“I like this team because of the effort the guys put in, we have a lot of hardworking guys,” said Washington after finishing with 15 points, nine rebounds and four assists.
“But I also think we got to do a better job closing out quarters. We can’t let that happen. The better teams will take definitely advantage, so we have to work on that. But we can get better and let’s see what we can do.”
Playmaker Sol Mercado echoed the power forward’s sentiment while likening this Globalport team to the Harbour Centre crew, which won numerous PBL titles for owner Mikee Romero.
“This team is a lot different. This feels like how Harbour used to feel, in terms of hard effort, the fieriness. It felt like the old Batang Pier basketball and I’m really excited. We can only get better,” said Mercado, who notched eight points, nine rebounds and six assists.
Gary David did not play, but replacement Jaypee Belencion gave a good account of himself with 14 points, one shy of the rookie’s career-high. His trey also gave Globalport its biggest lead at 47-30, midway in the second period.
Graham also had 10 rebounds, while Nino Canaleta and Mark Isip each scored at least 13 points, but the Express would come no closer than seven points the rest of the way.
Carlo Sharma added eight points and 11 rebounds, but fellow Express newcomer Vic Manuel went scoreless after attempting just twice from the field in 12 minutes.
In all, Globalport committed just 10 turnovers, nine less than Air21, and converted those to 20 points to offset a 48-57 deficit in the rebounding department. (NC)
The scores:
Globalport 101 – Cummings 37, Washington 15, Belencion 14, Miller 10, Lingganay 8, Mercado 8, Hayes 6, Salvador 2, Yee 1, Buensuceso 0, Taha 0, Nabong 0, Alonzo 0.
Air 21 94 – Graham 31, Canaleta 19, Isip 13, Menor 9, Sharma 8, Arboleda 7, Sena 2, Custodio 2, Cortez 2, Omolon 1, Manuel 0.
Quarterscores: 24-20, 53-42, 78-68, 101-94
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