FedEx cruises past Shell

FedEx, a team proud of having a pure homegrown cast, pounded a Shell team reeling minus three suspended Fil-Am players, hacking out a 101-79 victory in the Gran Matador PBA Fiesta Cup at the Makati Coliseum last night.

The Express took command as the Turbochargers struggled without Fil-Ams Tony dela Cruz, Chris Jackson and Kelani Ferreria, running a fastbreak play at every opportunity for the lopsided win that drew them level with the Red Bull Barakos and the Purefoods Hotdogs in the middle of the chart on identical 6-7 win-loss cards.

The Express beat the Turbochargers by 24 points, 26-2, in fastbreaks as they avenged an 84-100 defeat in their previous tiff on March 16.

"That was really our idea… to run at every opportunity because we knew their import couldn’t keep in step with us," said FedEx coach Bong Ramos.

Melvin Robinson produced only 14 points on 6-of-9 field-goal shooting but the absence of Dela Cruz, Jackson and Ferreria proved to be biggest factor as Shell suffered an eighth loss in 14 starts.

Dela Cruz, for one, is considered Shell’s main man as he leads the team locals in scoring with 13.5 points a game. The 6-foot-3 forward also averages 4.8 rebounds and 2.5 assists.

Without the three Fil-Ams, the Turbochargers just couldn’t get their game going, falling behind by as many as 24 points in the fourth quarter.

What made things worse for Shell was that the much quicker Anthony Miller totally outplayed Robinson.

Miller churned out 27 rebounds and 25 points as against Robinson’s 14 points and seven rebounds.

Sta. Lucia Realty also pounced on a San Miguel Beer team struggling with suspended Fil-Ams, carving out a 97-80 win for solo fourth place later in the night.