'This one for you'

Facing the spectre of forfeiture with its top gun all wrapped up in controversy, Tanduay decided to go it alone and used Sonny Alvarado's case as a rallying point to carve out a swasbuckling 91-79 victory over Purefoods in the opener of their Alaxan PBA All-Filipino Cup best-of-five semifinal showdown at the PhilSports last night.

Eric Menk, one of Tanduay's one-two punch, played a dual role with his Alvarado rooted on the bench as he fired 44 points and hauled down 17 rebounds as the Rhum Masters defied the odds to take the headstart in their best-of-five series.

Menk missed matching his career-high record of 45 points by one in a sterling performance which he later said he's dedicating to Alvarado, who's facing charges of falsification of public documents with the Bureau of Immigration.

"Sonny (Alvarado) is a great player but we can't do anything. So I told the boys not to think what's happening. Our job is to win games, so let's go win this game. And they did. This one is for Sonny ," said Tanduay coach Alfrancis Chua.

Tanduay actually struggled at the start but came out with guns ablaze after the halftime break and sustained the firepower until the end as it stretched its winning streak to six games, thus moving two wins short of the title playoff.

Menk,who toyed with EJ Feihl and Andy Seigle, struck hardest in the third quarter, scoring 18 points as the Rhum Masters erected a 73-63 lead after trailing by one, 41-42, at the halftime.