MAHINDRA outdueled GlobalPort, 111-98, in a seemingly all-Filipino affair to start its PBA Commissioner’s Cup campaign on a high note on Friday at the Smart-Araneta Coliseum.
With both teams’ imports hardly dominant, their local crews stepped up, with the Enforcers’ balanced effort outweighing Terrence Romeo’s one-man show for the Batang Pier.
Nino Canaleta, celebrating his birthday on Friday, carried the fight for the Enforcers early with 20 points in 14 minutes in the first half, before LA Revilla, Mike DiGregorio, Karl Dehesa, and Mark Yee took over the second half.
Their combined efforts negated Romeo’s career-high-tying 41 points.
“It was a total team effort,” Enforcers coach Chito Victolero said. “We worked on our consistency in the offseason. Last conference, we kept on competing, but we couldn’t finish games. But now, we’ve worked on the little things.”
The scores:
Mahindra 111 - Canaleta 20, Revilla 17, Digragorio 14, Dehesa 12, Yee 11, Gilchrist 10, Guinto 10, Ramos 9, Pinto 5, Jaime 3.
GlobalPort 98 - Romeo 41, Williams 13, Pringle 12, Mamaril 9, Jensen 6, Taha 6, Yeo 4, Semerad 3, Kramer 2, Sumang 2, Maierhofer 0, Pena 0, Uyloan 0.
Quarterscores: 31-23, 60-47, 82-76, 111-98