Eagles claw Amigos in season opener

CEBU -- The Professional Davao Eagles played better as a team as it cut the Cagayan de Oro Amigos to pieces, 93-82, yesterday at the start of the Metropolitan Basketball Association’s fifth season at the packed Cebu City Coliseum here.

Sophomore Peter Simon and rookies Billy Mamaril and Jon Dan Salvador combined for 36 points although it was the trio of Genesis Sasuman, Romulo Marata and Glen Peter Yap who delivered in the clutch in a victory that jumpstarted the new-look Eagles’ ambitious title bid.

Fresh from a major revamp, the Eagles, behind Sasuman, Marata and Yap combined for 15 of their team’s 22 fourth-quarter points, enough to take the fight out of Cagayan de Oro.

"Maganda ang jelling ng veterans at mga batang players ko," said TPG Davao mentor Bong Go, who replaced Jun Noel before the season started.

Yap, coming off a two-year stint in the PBA, started it all for the Eagles with a triple en route to a 20-2 lead which they relinquished early in the second quarter. Cagayan de Oro neophyte Ernani Epondulan scored on a "blitz-3" and gave the Amigos a 27-26 edge.

But it proved to be Cagayan de Oro’s only taste of the lead as TPG Davao displayed so much cohesion to regain control of the ballgame.

The Amigos tried to mount a last-quarter rally but Sasuman and the dazzling duo of Yap and Marata defused their bid as they lost their first game under new coach Victor Ycasiano.

In the second game, the Cebuana Lhuillier Gems, playing before a roaring jampacked home crowd, defeated Osaka Pangasinan Waves, 109-99, in overtime.