WITH a good balanced effort from a number of players, Magnolia stretched its perfect run to six games with a 125-89 rout of NorthPort in PBA on Tour at the Ynares Sports Arena in Pasig Friday.
It's by design as coach Chito Victolero preaches the importance of sharing the ball, teamwork and chemistry - the very mark of what they've been showing in the preseason event presented by Arena Plus and sponsored by Bingo Plus.
Versus the Batang Pier, seven players hit double figures with two contributing eight apiece as the Hotshots remained as one of two teams sporting unblemished cards, the other being the Rain or Shine Elasto Painters at 4-0.
Arvin Tolentino and his teammates couldn't keep up with the Hotshots' torrid offense and saw the end of their three-game streak. The Batang Pier dropped to 3-3 overall.
It was actually a tight contest until Jed Mendoza, with 3-of-3 three-point shooting, starred in the Hotshots sudden tear to open a 53-41 lead at the half.
Sponsored content: Then many other guys took turns leading the attack as the Hotshots zoomed to a lead as big as 39 in what was actually expected to be an exciting tiff.
Jerrick Ahanmisi led all scorers with 23 points on top of five rebounds, two assists and one steal without an error.
The Fil-Am forward from Adamson U said they're taking the "On Tour" seriously as they're determined to be really ready when the season proper comes.
"It's important to work on our game and to improve on every single game," said Ahanmisi on their goal.
And the Hotshots look well on the same page on this.
Sponsored content: Just consider this game where trade recruit Joseph Eriobu came through with 16 markers, four rebounds, three assists, two steals and one rebound, and Mendoza got away with 11 points and seven assists.
Others hitting double figures were James Laput with 15, Jackson Corpus with 14, Rome dela Rosa with 11 and Mark Barroca with 10.
Paul Lee chipped in eight markers, four dish-offs and two rebounds playing 16:22 minutes.
Tolentino paced the losing team with a total of 19 with two three-pointers.(SB)
