JERRAMY King flourished in his new-found role at Columbian, powering the Dyip to an auspicious 126-98 drubbing of Blackwater Sunday in a match kicking off the PBA Commissioner's Cup at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
Acquired from free agency after being released by original team Rain or Shine at the end of the last Philippine Cup, King sizzled for 30 points he highlighted with several key baskets that enabled the team, formerly alternately known as Kia and Mahindra, to pull away.
Rashawn McCarthy also had a big night, notching 22 points, six assists and three steals to make up for a relatively quiet scoring night for import CJ Aiken, who only finished with nine points in his PBA debut.
Aiken took just eight shots but did have 22 rebounds and six steals, leaving Dandan at a crossroads on whether to stick with him or bring in an unnamed backup.
"CJ is okay, but... he needs to be more aggressive," said Dyip coach Ricky Dandan. "He has to be more aggressive against the other big imports, especially since we have (Prince) Onuaku (of Meralco) on Wednesday.
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"We'll see. We have three games this week. This is his first exam, so to speak."
Blackwater reinforcement Jarrid Famous already had his way against Aiken with 35 points and 22 rebounds, but he did have 11 turnovers.
All because of a help defense coming from all directions that prevented Famous from completely imposing his will inside.
"Our energy blew them out," noted Dandan.
Those miscues also jacked the Elite's turnover totals to a season-high 27 and gave the Dyip a 44-13 advantage in turnover points.
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Offense proved to be of little concern for Dandan and King was chief among the locals who took care of that.
After averaging just 2.0 points in the four games for the Elasto Painters before being released and promptly snatched by Columbian to slide McCarthy over to the shooting guard spot, King scattered 14 of his points in the first half to power Blackwater to as much as a 50-39 lead.
The 27-year-old Fil-American scored eight more in the third period to help break Columbian off from a seven-point game and into an 87-72 spread, and added eight more in the fourth.
With the likes of McCarthy, Carlo Lastimosa, Ronald Tubid and Jackson Corpuz chipping in, the difference even got stretched to a high of 109-89, 4:23left.
The way his charges were able to maintain their poise, unlike their numerous fold-ups in the first conference, was attributed by Dandan to several bull sessions they had after winding up the Philippine Cup with a 1-11 slate.
"After we gave them two-week break and brought them back to training camp, we talked about change in attitude," added Dandan. "We should not play the same way as we did in the first conference, I shouldn't coach the way I coached in the first conference."
The scores:
COLUMBIAN - King 30, McCarthy 22, Lastimosa 14, Camson 12, Tubid 12, Aiken 9, Celda 6, Corpuz 6, Khobuntin 6, Cahilig 5, Sara 4.
BLACKWATER - Famous 35, Maliksi 22, Belo 11, Erram 8, Pinto 8, Marcelo 4, DiGregorio 2, Cruz 2, Sena 2, Palma 2, Jose 2, Sumang 0.
Quarterscores: 27-25, 59-55, 87-72, 126-98.
