HAPEE Toothpaste needed a strong first half in repulsing Burger King, 100-85, for its third-straight win Tuesday night in the 2008 Philippine Basketball League (PBL) Lipovitan Amino Sports Cup at the Rizal Memorial Coliseum.

Jervy Cruz and Mark Borboran headed the Complete Protectors’ break away in the first 20 minutes as they combined for 29 of their team’s 55-point outburst that set the tone for the rout for Hapee, which remained in second place with a 7-3 record.

Cruz and Borboran also erased their previous personal best in scoring with the former hitting 22 points on 10-of-16 shooting while the southpaw Borboran booking a career-high 23 that went along with his eight rebounds.

But Complete Protectors head coach Louie Alas credited the team’s defense, particularly in the second period when they took the game away from the Whoppers of coach Allan Gregorio.

“When we went zone, we forced them to commit several turnovers that resulted to easy baskets for us,” said Alas, who also drew 16 and 14 points from Reed Juntilla and Larry Rodriguez, respectively.

The loss was the fourth in a row for Burger King and their sixth overall in 11 games.

Burger King’s only bright moment came early in the final quarter when Mike Bravo ignited a 12-5 rally highlighted by his rare four-point play to close the gap to 67-80, 6:20 remaining.

But Hapee responded with its own 8-2 run, capped by Juntilla’s three-pointer for a comfortable 88-69 advantage with less than four minutes left in the game.

Marcy Arellano led the Whoppers with 20 points, while Bravo chipped in 18 in 18 minutes of action.

In the first game, San Mig Coffee again relied on the clutch shooting of Eric de la Cuesta and a career game from Neil Raneses to grab an 86-82 win over Bacchus Energy Drink and improve its mark to 4-5.

Raneses poured in a personal-best 29 points, while de la Cuesta chipped in 22, including two crucial free throws in the closing minutes that thwarted the Raiders’ attempted rally down the stretch.

The Coffee Kings were up by 20 points, 49-29, late in the second quarter before Bacchus slowly staged a comeback in the second half, trimming the double-digit lead to just six, 75-81, on Christian Luanzon’s three-pointer with 2:01 left in the game.

But the veteran de la Cuesta, playing just his second game, came to the rescue with two pressure-packed free throws off a Luanzon foul that somehow defused the momentum of the Raiders.

“His (dela Cuesta) mere presence is a big lift for the team and also his leadership,” said Coffee Kings head coach Koy Banal, whose team shot a decent 51 percent (30-of-51) from the field.

“But I think the formula is now working for us. That is focusing on little things that we should be doing, both on offense and defense,” Banal added. “This is really a collective effort.”

San Mig Coffee is now 2-0 since acquiring dela Cuesta and the win marked the team’s first winning streak in the tournament.            

Mark Yee paced the Raiders with 18 points while Luanzon and Mark Cagoco each had 13. Bacchus went down deeper in the team standings with a 4-7 win-loss slate. Rey Guevarra contributed 12 points in just 17 minutes for Bacchus.

Marquez: I’m here to demand, not beg

DETHRONED super-featherweight champion Juan Manuel Marquez on Tuesday clarified he came to Manila not to beg for a rematch with Manny Pacquiao, but to demand for one.

Louie still believes he can get hands on $0.13M

LUISITO ESPINOSA is not losing hope that he would still get his purse for a world title fight against Arentina’s Carlos Rios staged at the South Cotabato Stadium in Koronadal City more than 10 years ago.

ADAMSON University kept its composure, then leaned on guest player Neriza Bautista in the third set as the Lady Falcons hacked out a shocking  25-22, 25-21, 25-23 victory over fancied San Sebastian College (SSC) to seize the solo lead in the Shakey’s V-League Season 5 at The Arena in San Juan Tuesday.

Patrick Gregorio, the first to be named executive director of the powerful Basketball Association of the Philippines-Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (BAP-SBP), is contemplating stepping down from his post, a source said.

THE conference is barely two weeks old and yet the Coca-Cola Tigers are already making quite a noise.

HAPEE Toothpaste needed a strong first half in repulsing Burger King, 100-85, for its third-straight win Tuesday night in the 2008 Philippine Basketball League (PBL) Lipovitan Amino Sports Cup at the Rizal Memorial Coliseum.

BACOLOD CITY—Defending national women’s champion University of Visayas (UV) easily disposed of University of Negros Occidental-Recoletos (UNO-R) to open its back-to-back bid on a high note and lead the opening-day winners of the 12th Nestea Beach Volley Visayas Eliminations Tuesday at the University of St. La Salle sand courts.

Mercedes-Benz, the worldwide leader in luxury vehicles, is taking an aggressive stance in promoting golf in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) region for 2008.  The German auto giant had recently signed a three-year deal as the Asean Golf Tour’s title sponsor.

THERE’S the saying “a sound mind, a sound body.”

No matter what is one’s religious persuasion, there’s no doubt that positive thinking, or faith for some, does wonders. Not because things would magically turn in one’s favor, but because positive thinking is a matter of changing one’s perspective.