PACMAN BEATS CEBU MEDIA IN FRIENDLY BASKETBALL GAME

Had he not been into boxing, the amiable Filipino sports hero Manny Pacquiao would have been a professional basketball player. Yes folks, apart from his ring acumen, Pacquiao is also endowed with basketball talent that can rival the best shooting guards in the PBA today.

Pacquiao flaunted his hoop skills with finesse and charted a game-high 27 points in leading Team Pacman to a 75-72 victory over the Cebu Sports Media Association (CSMA) cagers in a friendly but competitive hardcourt showdown yesterday at the City

Sports Club-Cebu gym.

Pacquiao baffled the CSMA stalwarts with his explosive perimeter shooting and excellent dribbling ability that also enabled him to easily pierce through the triple-teaming defense thrown at him by their very game opponents.

On several instances, Pacquiao drove hard to the baseline, attacked the defense of CSMA players and then kick-out the ball to an open teammate. Although their offense is anchored mainly on him, Pacman showed he's a team player by creating plays and dishing out spate of nifty assists to his teammates.

At the outset, Team Pacman clobbered CSMA and led by as much as 21 points late in third period. But the CSMA chargers staged a daring fight-back in the windup to threaten to 70-73 with just 31 seconds left before the final buzzer.

Team Pacquiao, however, wisely used the clock before Pacquiao completed his game-long brilliance by hitting a pair of free throws to settle the final tally.

"Eto naman yung ginagawa ko eh. Kahit sa Amerika, naglalaro ako nga basketball," Pacquiao reasoned out why he played basketball against some members of the Cebu tri-media.

The CSMA side was composed of Manny Villaruel and Yoyo Abayan of The Freeman, Jun Migallen, Erwin Lirazan, Allan Defensor, and Rommel Manlosa of Sun.Star, Lito Tecson, Calvin Cordova, and Jonas Panerio of Cebu Daily News, Dodong Guden of dyRF Radyo

Fuerza, Roy Aznar of RPN-9, and sports patron Alan Choachuy, who was gracious enough to provide venue for the goodwill encounter.

After the match, Pacquiao and his confidant Rex "Wakee" Salud tendered a sumptous lunch at Conching's Restaurant where the group feasted on various native chicken dishes, grilled squids, "caldereta", and lechon (roasted pig).