Powerade Tigers vs B-Meg Derby Ace Llamados

MANILA, Philippines – B-Meg came out of its shell in deviating a bit from the triangle offense, pounding a listless Powerade side, 97-80, in the 2011-12 PBA Philippine Cup at the Smart Araneta Coliseum tonight.

With coach Tim Cone allowing them more freedom to play their game, the Llamados recalled their old form and played relentless ball throughout to pull off the lopsided win enabling them to draw level with the Tigers at 2-3.

“We shelved our unconventional starting five and returned to the regular five with a natural point guard. I let them back in their comfort zone,” said Cone.

B-Meg snapped a two-game slide while Powerade reeled to a second straight loss, unable to recover from its heartbreaking 72-73 defeat by Barangay Ginebra Saturday in Victorias, Negros.

Glaring was Gary David’s woeful 3-of-13 shooting, limiting the prolific forward to his worst output in the last five conferences. The 2010 scoring champ averaged 22 points before the game.

The Llamados pummeled the Tigers with a torrid shooting and hurt them as well on the other end with an untiring defense.

“We put one good job together. I’m pleased with our effort. Mostly, I’m pleased with our defense. PJ Simon came out and became a committed defender to get Gary. The other guards did a good job as well committing to play defense,” said Cone.

With a solid job on both ends, the Llamados utterly dominated the contest, leading by as many as 29 points.

“We kind of lost the third quarter. They put pressure and we didn’t respond. But the first group came out and settled us back down,” said Cone.

Cone referred to Simon, James Yap, Josh Urbiztondo, Kerby Raymundo and Marc Pingris who terribly outplayed Powerade counterparts Doug Kramer, Celino Cruz, Josh Vanlandingham, Romel Adducul and David.

Top draft pick JV Casio played his second game as a pro and himself struggled with a 1-of-9 field shooting.

The Llamados pounced on the Tigers’ listless start, building a commanding lead right in the opening quarter at 24-9.

Yap converted all three three-point tries and the whole the B-Meg team went 10 of 24 from the field as against Powerade’s woeful 3-of-17 clip in the first 12 minutes of play.

Continuing to do better in the next period, the Llamados pull away further, 46-25, at the half.

Vanlandingham and Adducul were the only Tigers who hit their strides in the opening half, combining for four-of-six field goals and 3-of-3 charities.

The rest threw blanks, including David who missed all five field-goal tries.

On the other end, the Llamados worked on a fluid-motion game with good ball distribution.