Tanduay vents ire on Ginebra

Tanduay Rhum, its sizzling run stopped by San Miguel Beer the last time out, rediscovered its winning ways quickly last night, overpowering a Vergel Meneses-less Barangay Ginebra squad, 89-72, to regain the solo lead in the Alaxan PBA All-Filipino Cup eliminations at the Araneta Coliseum.

The Rhum Masters flaunted their tremendous strength and power once again, showing no mercy for the hapless Gin Kings as they rebounded strong from their 67-76 loss to the Beermen Sunday to improve their win-loss record to 7-1.

Tanduay kept its unblemished record versus Ginebra in their head-on collisions since last year, handling the Gin Kings their fifth loss against three wins in the season-opening tourney.

The Gin Kings absorbed their second consecutive defeat with Meneses, averaging 18.4 points, 4.2 assists and 3.8 rebounds, sidelined by bone spurs in his right foot.

In a duel between the league's best and worst offensive teams, the former easily imposed its will on the latter, leading by as many as 32 points before completing another emphatic win in the tourney.

The Rhum Masters pressed their bid in the second and third quarters before slowing it down in the payoff period, allowing the Gin Kings to come within 17 points.

"Medyo masama ang pakiramdam ng team sa pagkatalo sa San Miguel kaya siguro naibuhos sa Ginebra," said Tanduay coach Alfrancis Chua. "But I think Ginebra played bad. They're not making their shots, even the free throws."

Eric Menk and Sonny Alvarado transformed themselves into a deadly two-man wrecking crew once again, combining for 48 points, 29 rebounds and seven assists to lead the Tanduay assault.

The Rhum Masters also drew tremendous help from their backup crew, including Jomer Rubi who scored nine points on 3-of-5 shooting from the three-point area in his return stint with the team. The former Perpetual Help star in the NCAA was reactivated from the reserve list, replacing Derrick Bughao.

With the team working as one cohesive unit, Tanduay beat Ginebra practically on all fronts, dominating the boards, 59-37, shooting better from the field (46 percent) and limiting themselves to only 17 turnovers.

And the team rediscovered their mean running game, scoring 14 points on fastbreak. It will be remembered that the Rhum Masters were held to a single basket off the break by the Beermen.

The Gin Kings groped for form, shooting only 38 percent from the field.

Jun Limpot paced the team with only 18 points on 8-of-20 shooting from the field.