Juan Gomez de Liano proved to be as good as advertised, helping Converge fashion a dominant 129-92 win over Titan Ultra Saturday in the PBA Philippine Cup at the Ynares Center in Montalban.

Justin Arana put up a 20-20 game and fellow frontliner Justine Baltazar notched a double-double of his own, but Gomez de Liano grabbed a big share of the limelight by becoming the first rookie to debut in the PBA with a triple-double through a 15-point, 10-rebound, and 11-assist stat line.

Foremost among those proud of Converge’s masterful showing was Dennis Pineda, who also officially won his first game at the helm. “Nakita natin na nag-enjoy ‘yung mga bata natin,” he said.

“In their game, as you can see, ‘yung pacing ng game na gusto namin, ‘yung mabilis ang pacing, nagawa ng mga bata. And I think they enjoyed the game. Iyun ang pinaka-mahalaga doon,” added the current Pampanga Vice Governor.

Pineda also heaped praises for the lefty guard who was made the No. 2 pick overall by Converge in last month’s Rookie Draft and promptly helped make Converge’s biggest win in franchise history possible.

“Actually, nag-wo-worry na nga ako sa oras niya pero hiningi niya sa akin ito kaya ibinigay ko lang,” related Pineda.

De Liano makes history in debut

Despite being the first rookie to notch a triple-double in his debut, Gomez de Liano refused to hog all the credit following the game that saw the FiberXers lead by as much as 129-90.

“I think it was a total team effort and I give props and credit to our coaching staff and especially to our players that, you know, we were able to execute our gameplan,” said the 25-year-old. “And we focused a lot on defense and I think we emphasized that a lot today.”

Arana, who wound up with 28 points and a career-high 22 rebounds, also expressed elation playing alongside the combo guard who has seen extensive action in Japan, Lithuania, and Korea since coming out of the University of the Philippines.

“Super-saya kasi nga nakaka-excite ‘yung makalaro kasama siya kasi, ayun nga, magaling siyang humanap ng kakampi niya and magaling siyang gumawa ng sariling tira so sobrang excited ako para sa team na ito,” said Arana.

Converge lives up to hype

With Schonny Winston and fellow starter Kevin Racal also finishing with at least 12 points each, to add to Baltazar’s 15 points and 11 rebounds, the FiberXers had little trouble living up to their high pre-tournament billing with the wire-to-wire win.

The loss foiled Titan’s bid to follow up its 100-96 conquest of Meralco last Wednesday, dropping it to a 1-1 slate.

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Joshua Munzon scored 31 points, but the Giant Risers saw their hopes dim right at the 7:13 mark of the opening quarter when Calvin Abueva, who scored 41 points against the Bolts, left the game for good after suffering a right hamstring injury.