Arvin Tolentino of NorthPort drives to the basket. PBA photo
NorthPort in big start
NORTHPORT Batang Pier opened its campaign in the PBA Philippine Cup in style, beating Terrafirma Dyip, 97-75, at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium in Malate, Manila.
Looking fit and confident, the Batang Pier rode on Arvin Tolentino’s near triple-double of 19 points on 6-of-13 shooting from the field, 12 assists and eight rebounds in 40 minutes of action for coach Bonnie Tan.
Will Navarro added a double-double performance of 18 points on 7-of-10 shooting, 10 rebounds and three assists while Joshua Munzon contributed with 15 points and four rebounds.
Allyn Bulanadi and Sidney Onwubere chipped in 10 points each.
The Batang Pier also got contributions from Damie Cuntapay, Fran Yu and Evan Nelle for their first win.
CJ Catapusan and Kevin Ferrer led the losing effort of the Dyip of coach Raymund Tiongco with 16 and 15 points, respectively.
Catapusan also had five rebounds while Ferrer had five rebounds and three steals for Terrafirma, which dropped to 1-2.
Louie Sangalang and Brent Paraiso contributed 10 points each.
The Batang Pier shared the ball well with their 27 assists against only 12 from the Dyip.
They also had 5-0 advantage in shot blocks.
“Maganda ball movement namin for this game. We had 27 assists na sana ma-capitalize namin for our next games, especially this coming Wednesday,” said NorthPort assistant coach Rensy Bajar in an interview.
“Tulong-tulong lang talaga kami in terms of the little things, like rebounding, assists department,”Bajar told sportswriters.
The NorthPort-Terrafirma encounter came after the PBA, Asia’s first play-for-pay league, took a one-day break for the “PBA 50 Greatest The Anniverdsary Celebration held at the Solaire Resort North in Quezon City.
Ten additional players, led by Nelson “The Bull” Asaytono, were formally installed as part of the PBA 50 Greatest Players in the four-hour ceremony co-presented by Arena Plus.
The now 58-year-old Asaytono was joined by Jeffrey Cariaso, June Mar Fajardo, Rene “Bong” Hawkins, Abe King, Danny Seigle, Scottie Thompson, the late Arnie Tuadles, Manny Victorino, and Yoyoy Villamin.
Fajardo and Thompson, the two MVP winners in the group, are the only active players added to the list.
The rest of the awardees are all retired.
The scores:
NorthPort (97) — Tolentino 19, Navarro 18, Munzon 15, Bulanadi 10, Onwubere 10, Cuntapay 8, Yu 6, Nelle 6, Flores 3, Taha 2, Miranda 0, Tratter 0, Nava 0.
Terrafirma (75) — Catapusan 16, Ferrer 15, Sangalang 10, Paraiso 10, Nonoy 9, Melecio 3, Ramos 3, Pringle 2, Hernandez 2, Romeo 2, Olivario 2, Zaldivar 1, Hanapi 0
Quarterscores: 24-13, 47-38, 70-58, 97-75.
