David, Tigers show might vs Cardona-less Bolts

Hammered in its last two outings, Powerade administered its own beating Saturday night at the Araneta Coliseum. Gary David poured in a season-high 31 points as the Tigers routed the Meralco Bolts, 81-66, to end a two-game slide in the PBA Philippine Cup. The sweet-shooting guard out of Lyceum scored 16 of his game-high output in the opening half when Powerade pulled away for good against a Meralco team that played without top gunner Mark Cardona for the entire second half. Cardona hurt his ankle following a bad fall early in the second period and was never fielded back by coach Ryan Gregorio. The high-scoring Meralco guard went out with only four points in eight minutes of action. He was later rushed to the hospital, his condition, according to Gregorio, `looking very bad.’ “The initial finding is plantar fasciitis (sakong). Mukhang he tore it. He is undergoing MRI now. And will be out indefinitely. Bad, bad, bad!," Gregorio told GMANews.TV. Thanks to David’s accurate shooting, Powerade is back in the upper half of the standings with an even 3-3 card and has put behind it the twin one-sided setbacks it suffered against Talk `N Text and San Miguel where they lost by an average margin of 22 points. “Gary David stepped up offensively at lahat nagging aggressive on defense. I think that spelled the difference," said Tigers coach Bo Perasol. David punctuated his offensive outburst by going 2-of-3 from three-point country and 11-of-12 from the foul line. Playing for the first time against their former franchise player Asi Taulava, the Tigers went at him right away, never allowing the veteran 6-foot-10 Filipino-Tongan to get his game going at the post. He was held to only five points. Taulava was traded by Powerade to Meralco two weeks before the 36th season kicked off. “We’re actually not thinking of the trade. Totally, wala sa isip namin iyon. It’s just that we have a high respect for Asi. Pinag-planuhan talaga namin siya," said Perasol. With David scoring 12 in the opening quarter, the Tigers raced to an early eight-point lead, before settling for a 44-33 halftime spread. Then Powerade welcomed the second half with back-to-back three-pointers by David and Mark Macapagal to stretch the advantage to 50-35. The Tigers had their biggest lead at 60-42 with 3:26 to go in the quarter. With no Cardona to turn to, Pong Escobal took the offensive chores for Meralco, finishing with 17 points, while Gabby Espinas added 12. The Bolts fell to 2-4 overall. – JVP/KY, GMANews.TV