Purefoods casts giant shadow over TnT

The Purefoods Tender Juicy Giants have extended their hot preseason tournament streak into the regular season, emerging the early solo leaders in the 2007 Smart PBA Philippine Cup.

The Giants made it two in a row in the season-opening all-Filipino tourney last night with a 112-97 shellacking of the Talk n Text Phone Pals in a road game at the Lamberto Macias Sports Center in Dumaguete.

Kerby Raymundo knocked in 25 points while James Yap rattled in 24 for the Giants who overcame a listless start, outplaying the Pals in the last three quarters en route to their second win in the season coming in the heels of a five-game sweep in the preseason event.

Marc Pingris, Roger Yap, Chico Lanete, Jondan Salvador and Romel Adducul also played well for the Giants who bucked the absence of Peter June Simon, who served an automatic one-game suspension as a result of his two flagrant fouls versus the Realtors Wednesday.

Down by 11 in the first quarter, the Giants drew even, 46-46, at the half and raced ahead, 80-65, in the third period with the team starting to get their game going.

Yap, the 2006 MVP winner, banged away a three-pointer then scored on a layup sparking a decisive third-quarter romp that had Purefoods breaking away from a 53-all standoff.

Bad breaks didn’t spare the Phone Pals with Jimmy Alapag accidentally hit in the eye by Roger Yap.

Alapag sat out practically the whole last quarter.

Renren Ritualo carried much of the fight for the Pals as he even engaged Yap in a torrid shootout. The Tokushima Olympic qualifier veteran led all scorers with 28 points.

Don Allado, Yancy de Ocampo and Macmac Cardona each scored at least 12 for the Pals who debuted in the tourney with a 113-106 win over the Alaska Milk Aces Wednesday.