Enter the new Dragons

After notching its first win ever at the Astrodome Sunday, Welcoat returned to the same Pasay City venue to score a first back-to-back victories in franchise history.

The Dragons followed up their 126-125 overtime squeaker over the Talk n Text Pals Sunday with a 95-93 win over the Magnolia Beverage Masters last night in the 2007-08 Smart PBA Philippine Cup.

“We’re so happy. I myself didn’t think we could beat these two top teams. I can’t believe we did it,” said Welcoat coach Leo Austria. “I can’t explain how it was done. Credit goes to the players. Maybe, it’s all about hard work.”

The Dragons came out roaring in the third quarter and survived an alarming slump early in the final canto as they came away with their third win in seven outings in the tourney.

Austria and his troops scored only three wins throughout the tourney last year. Magnolia fell to joint second place with Talk n Text and Alaska Milk at 4-3.

Nic Belasco came through with a huge double-double game with 18 points and 14 rebounds on top of two assists and one block, leading Welcoat past the Magnolia team which traded him to Alaska Milk at midstream last year. He was acquired by the Dragons in exchange for Junjun Cabatu.

Wainwright also had 18 points with seven in the fourth quarter while rookies Joe Devance and Ryan Arana added 6 and 12 points, respectively, for the Dragons.

The Dragons salvaged the game despite going without a basket in the first six minutes of the payoff quarter, thus, squandering a 77-69 third-quarter advantage.

The Beverage Masters had gone ahead at 85-77 when Wainwright ended their dry spell with two charities off a foul by Enrico Villanueva.

Drawing second wind in the homestretch, the Dragons regained the lead at 89-88 on a coast-to-coast layup by Arana with three minutes left to play.

The Dragons stretched the lead to 93-88 on four charities with time down to 2:35 and went on to secure the win with nobody able to score a basket in the next two minutes of play.

Dondon Hontiveros and Danny Seigle paced the losing team with 21 and 19 points, respectively.