Games Today (Cuneta Astrodome)

5:15 p.m. – B-Meg vs. Barako Bull
7:30 p.m. – Meralco vs. Petron



BARAKO Bull head coach Junel Baculi wasn’t thrilled at all when the Energy pulled off an easy win in their opening game in the PBA Commissioner’s Cup.

Perhaps a shock victory tonight against one of the toughest and deepest ball clubs in the league would change his outlook.

Barako Bull clashes with powerhouse B-Meg in a battle between teams seeking to gain early solo leadership, even as Petron and Meralco collide with each franchise aiming to notch their first win in the short tournament at the Araneta Coliseum.

The Energy and the Llamados conquered opening-day opponents last Friday. Barako Bull dumped Alaska, 98-78, while B-Meg outlasted Meralco, 96-93.

Yet despite the convincing win fashioned out by Barako Bull, Baculi insists that there’s still a long way to go for the team to contend seriously.

“It’s too early to tell,” said Baculi. “Right now, we are still working on offensive chemistry. We will be tested defensively against B-Meg, a strong offensive team with a reliable import.”

The addition of DerMarr Johnson to the Barako Bull line-up as an import didn’t actually inject a problem in terms of chemistry. Johnson debuted with 19 points and eight rebounds, although he did expose himself as a player who loves the three-point shot without much success, merely going 1-of-9.

But what makes the Energy an unpredictable team now is their locals. Willie Miller, the two-time MVP, led Barako Bull with 25 points – 13 coming in the third quarter when the ball club broke away from the Aces. Three other players also contributed with at least 10 points.

“Barako has as much pure talent as any team in the league, plus they have an anomaly as an import which makes them a tough match-up,” said Llamados coach Tim Cone. “We’re hoping for the win so we can establish some early momentum in the conference.”   

The defense of Barako Bull will now be tested against B-Meg’s import, Denzel Bowles, who collected 27 points and 11 rebounds against the Bolts.

The winner of this match will claim the solo lead, an important achievement this early since the tournament format only calls for a single-round, nine-game affair with the last four teams to be eliminated.

The Boosters and the Bolts will be trying to avoid going down to a 0-2 (win-loss) hole, with one team being assured of a victory when the square off in the main 7:30 p.m. game.

Petron had a disappointing debut against sister-team Ginebra Sunday. The Boosters were 3.9 seconds away from sending the game into overtime, but Jay-Jay Helterbrand beat the buzzer with a twisting difficult shot off import Nick Fazekas to escape with an 84-82 win.

Meralco will now be facing a second straight heavyweight ball club, and is again pressed to work hard on defense.

“Hopefully our second game will give us a chance to stabilize. What we need to do is combine hard work with basketball intelligence, which we failed against B-meg,” said Bolts coach Ryan Gregorio.   

Gregorio, too, is wishing that his import, Jarrid Famous, would settle down.

“Famous played decent in the second half after a woeful first half. But as an import, he must play at an optimum level for the while game. Petron is always a tough match-up because of their depth and with the addition of Fazekas, it made them all the more dangerous,” Gregorio said.   

Fazekas turned out to be an outstanding catch as an import. He scored 37 points and pulled down 18 rebounds in 44 minutes of play.