Cebuana clobbers MP Hotel

Games Monday (JCSGO Gym, Quezon City) 2 p.m. – CafeFrance vs Tanduay Light 4 p.m – Jumbo Plastic vs Hapee Toothpaste

Cebuana Lhuillier played true to its potential and tore MP Hotel-Letran into shreds for a 118-78 win to take the early lead in the PBA D-League Foundation Cup yesterday at the Ynares Sports Arena in Pasig City.

The trio of Jackson Corpuz, Moala Tautuaa and Norbert Torres went berserk early, scoring almost at will that gave the Gems a 30-13 lead in the first quarter and never looked back to secure their second win in as many games in the tournament.

Corpuz topscored for the Gems with 26 points aside from posting nine rebounds and four steals, while Torres had 15 points and Tautuua chipping in 11 points, eight rebounds and four assists in a mighty show of firepower.

The wire-to-wire victory was a welcome development for Coach Boycie Zamar after the Gems went through some anxious moments last Monday before prevailing over the CafeFrance Bakers, 86-85.

In that game, the Gems fell into a 21point hole before Tautuua sparked the team’s fightback.

“This was a good win for us after a shaky first game. Doon we had to rely on prayers, pero di pwedeng puro prayers, dapat players naman,” said Zamar.

Almond Vosotros also scored 15 points for Cebuana while teammate Simon Enciso posted 14 points and eight assists.

Jopher Custodio scored 17 points for MP Hotel-Letran, which dropped to 0-2.

In the first game, Abel Galliguez scored all of his 16 points in the fourth quarter to power Cagayan Valley to a 7570 decision over AMA University.

A dagger trey by Galliguez made it 7568 for the Rising Suns, who won their first game since losing to the Hapee Toothpaste Fresh Fighters in the Aspirants Cup finals and Tautuaa to the Gems in the offseason.