Fuel Save, SBO II Dominates as PSPC League Opens 

Dominant victories ushered in the new 2016 Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corporation (PSPC) Basketball League last Saturday at DOE Gym in Taguig.

Retailers Fuel Save was unforgiving in its 98-45 whipping of CS3 in the first game of the season opener.

Simply too quick and too strong, Fuel Save blasted SH/G4S – CS3 from the get go and led by 25 points by halftime.

But Fuel Save didn’t pull its punches, pushing the lead to as insurmountable as 55 points late in the game.

Carlo Montoya topscored for Fuel Save with 22 points while Raymond Villarete added 20. David Kairuz added a double-double of 14 points and 11 rebounds.

It was just a commanding performance from Fuel Save, dropping 11 triples against CS3’s 1 and scoring 54 points inside the paint compared to its opponent’s 24.

Romnel Amistroso was the lone bright spot for CS3, which kept up with the rebounding but just wasn’t up to par in the offensive end, with 16 points and eight rebounds.

SBO II took the same route and blasted VPower Retail, 69-46, in the other game of the day.

But SBO II needed one-quarter before it could fully shake off VPower and take over the game, turning a mere two-point lead to 15 points by half time.

Behind the efforts of Hernan Sison, Royce de Guzman and Billy Madera, SBO II’s lead in the second half didn’t drop below 14 points.

Sison led all scorers with 17 points while De Guzman and Madera chipped in 13 points apiece for SBO II.

With only five of its eight-man team scoring, VPower just couldn’t keep up with SBO II on the offense and in rebounding.

Jay Lazo paced VPower in a losing effort with 14 points while Ambo Demaisip and Carlo Dizon had 10 markers each.

Before the matches, Deputy Commissioner Ambrose Demaisip formally opened the tournament after a brief remark and an invocation led by JP Montoya.

Fitness trainers from Gold’s Gym helped the players loosen up for the action ahead with a series of warm-up exercises.