No happy debut for Viva five

Hapee Toothpaste struggled early but dished out the kind of windup expected of a fancied team as it smashed newcomer Viva Mineral Water, 59-42, yesterday at the start of the 2003 Sunkist PBL Unity Cup at the San Juan Gym.

Ryan Dy and June Peter Simon led the Grease Busters with 12 points apiece to underscore the team’s balanced offensive sock. But it was the troika of Rich Alvarez, Larry Fonacier and Niño Gelig who delivered the baskets that mattered most.

Fonacier and Alvarez, two of the four Ateneo cagers acquired recently by the Lamoiyan franchise, provided the firepower with key hits in the third quarter while Gelig came off the bench in the fourth period to anchor the team’s explosive windup.

Although the scores in the first three quarters did not reflect the manner by which Hapee dominated Viva, the victory still showed how deep the team’s bench is. And the scary thing about it is that the Grease Busters are still far from being cohesive.

"Ang hirap," were the first words uttered by Hapee mentor Junel Baculi. "Although I’m happy that we won, we still have a lot of things to improve and fine tune."

The Grease Busters, the Challenge Cup runners-up, shot atrociously from the field with a 21-of-59 clip but the Water Force proved worse, making only 17 fieldgoals out of 60 attempts although they outrebounded their rivals, 47-36.

In the second game, expansion team Nutri-licious stunned Montana Pawnshop, 69-61.

With its offensive game in disarray, the Grease Busters went to their defense to seize control, holding their rivals scoreless in a seven-minute stretch in the final quarter that had them breaking from a tight 39-35 game to win pulling away.

The Water Force actually was held to only seven points in the last quarter as Hapee Toothpaste’s pesky defense forced them to commit turnover after turnover, finishing with 27 errors which the Grease Busters converted into 18 points.

While Alvarez and Fonacier, who combined for 13 points, 11 rebounds, three steals and two shotblocks, had a decent game, fellow Blue Eagle Wesley Gonzales struggled all day and failed to score even a single point.

Gonzales, a vital cog in Ateneo’s title conquest last UAAP season, was unproductive in eight minutes with three errors. LA Tenorio was not even used.

Viva stuck close with Hapee in the first three quarters with a solid interior defense but lost steam in the homestretch as the Grease Busters clamped down on key Viva gunners.

"At this point, we still have to prove ourselves. We came in rusty and still have some rough edges that we need to polish," said Baculi.

"We got four Ateneo Blue Eagles and I was glad that Rich (Alvarez) and Larry (Fonacier) easily adjusted with the team. But given enough time, this team shows a lot of promise. We have a deep bench na kahit sinong (player) ang hugutin mo, tiyak na magde-deliver," he added.