Montaña, RMH-VMO axe wins

DEFENDING champion Montaña Pawnshop and heavy favorite The Royal Mandaya Hotel-Vice Mayor's Office (TRMH-VMO) axed debut wins at the start of the Mayor Inday Sara and Vice Mayor Rody Duterte 76th Araw ng Dabaw commercial basketball tournament at the jampacked Almendras Gym Davao City Recreation Center on Tuesday evening.

The Nick Serafica-coached Montaña hacked out a rousing 96-62 win over the Jigger Saniel-mentored Goldstar Hardware behind the heroics of black import Devon Sullivan who poured in 21 points as teammates Don Adormeo and Dino Daa added 13 points each.

Jamelle Cornley canned 15 while Jay Cabañog and Leomer Losentes chipped in identical nine points for Goldstar's losing cause.

Serafica, in a phone interview yesterday, said they capitalized on their teamwork and his players executed their game plan well.

"Balanse gyud ang tim. Maayo sab ang resulta sa running game namo kay halos collegiate players man ang naa sa among tim. Dako sab ang tabang ni Sullivan sa rebound ug sa opensa. Hinaut nga magtuloy-tuloy na among pagdaug para madepensahan namo among titulo (We have a balanced team. Our running game led by our collegiate standouts paved the way for us. Sullivan was also great factor in both defense and offense. We just hope to keep on winning so we can keep our title)," Serafica said.

He also said that they will stick to their brand of play when they face TRMH-VMO in their second game clash set on Wednesday evening.

Serafica added in the vernacular, "I told the boys to expect a very physical game against TRMH-VMO and put up a very tight man-to-man defense. We will keep our rival team running, too, to tire their Fil-Am players and imports."

He also said winning against TRMH-VMO will give them a big chance to enter the finals of the cagefest organized by Liga Dabaw Inc. and sanctioned by Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (SBP) Mindanao Cluster B director Regino "Boy" Cua.

In the opening game, TRMH-VMO demolished Team Villar, 100-86, with Francis Adriano scoring game-high 26. Cedric Happi and Mark Andaya contributed 18 and 14 points, respectively, even as Mark Magsumbol and JR Gerilla made 11 baskets each.

Fritz Vesagas (22 points), Chester Tolomia (19) and Chris Concepcion (18) were top scorers for Team Villar.

Miguel Solitaria, coach of the Glenn Escandor-owned and Christopher "Bong" Go-managed TRMH-VMO, said: "The game against Team Villar was not the type of game we were supposed to play yet. It was just our first game together as a team. We were still on the verge of knowing strengths and weaknesses of each player."

Solitaria, however, expects his boys to perform better opposite the defending champions.

"We will have some minor adjustments on both offense and defense and demand more effort from the players on both ends," Solitaria said in a separate phone interview.

Cash prizes of P100,000, P75,000, P50,000 and P30,000 await the top four teams in the league presented by the city government of Davao through the Sports Development Division of the City Mayor's Office.