IT'S a duel of opening-day winners as Converge and Hong Kong Eastern face off in Day 3 of the PBA Season 49 Commissioner's Cup at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium Friday.
Both hit the ground running with the Cheick Diallo-powered FiberXers thundering past the Terrafirma Dyip, 116-87, and the Cameron Clark-led guest team dismantling the Phoenix Super LPG Fuel Masters, 102-87, in the tournament kickoff Wednesday.
From lopsided triumphs, the two sides return to play two nights later chasing the early solo lead in the tourney ruled by San Miguel Beer the last time and by Barangay Ginebra the previous year with the participation of the Bay Area Dragons.
No doubt, Serbian coach Mensur Bajramovic's troops are out to mirror the impact brought by Bay Area then under Australian coach Brian Goorjian.
But it's early to say whether Eastern can do the same especially as the team is limited to one import, unlike in Bay Area's case where it was able to rotate Andrew Nicholson and Myles Powell.
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Cameron Clark is the man for Eastern - familiar to everyone here with his earlier PBA tours of duty with NLEX and San Miguel Beer.
He did well to lead the Eastern juggernaut in their 15-point rout of Phoenix.
Meanwhile, Diallo made good impression in his PBA debut as he imposed his hulking presence, collecting 25 points and 16 rebounds to lead the FiberXers to their big blowout of the Dyip.
Justin Arana, Bryan Santos and Mike Nieto contributed double-digit outputs, signifying what the locals can do, coming from their solid showing in the last Governors' Cup.
The FiberXers finished third from their group then behind eventual champion TNT and Meralco, then sent San Miguel Beer to a deciding Game Five in the quarterfinals.
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Coach Franco Atienza and his crew were narrowly beaten, 109-105, in the decider and took the exit with their heads held high.
And they want to improve from that. They want to continue the process to get better.
"More than the win, we look at the process, we look at how we played today. And basing on this, we shot 51 percent from the field. We out-rebounded them by half, assist is a good number, 28. It's just a good overall game for us," said Atienza after their smashing Commissioner's Cup debut.
"I think we dictated the pace pretty well and the guys are in sync, at least for this first game. I believe we were able to put the game how we wanted it to," he added.
Arana and Diallo went to work early and combined for 18 as the FiberXers raced to a 34-16 tear in the first canto. It was essentially a one-way street from there. (SB)
