Pasay City, Philippines – Former Letran Knights standout Boyet Bautista scored 16 points coming off the bench to lead the defending champion AFP Cavaliers to an 85-71 trumping of the Senate Defenders in the opener of UNTV Cup Season 5 on Monday, August 29 in Mall of Asia Arena.

Samuel Marata (#30) of Senate Defenders tries to get past the defense of AFP Cavaliers Bigman Jeffrey Quiambao (#2) in the season opener of UNTV Cup Season 5 in Mall of Asia Arena. (Photo: Photoville International).

Shooting guard Roger Araneta unleashed the booming tray in the second quarter after igniting an 8-0 blast to give the Cavaliers a 17-point advantage, 41-24 less than three minutes before the end of first half. He finished with 13 points after hitting 75% in three-point percentage, ¾ from beyond the arc.

Senate kept within striking distance midway in the third quarter when Sen. Sonny Angara connected from downtown followed by an Emmanuel Baltazar lay-up as they managed to trim AFP’s lead to just 12, 44-56.

Senate bigman Marlon Legazpi scored 13 points and pulled 8 boards while Sen. Joel “Tesdaman” Villanueva and Sen. Angara had 12 and 11 points respectively.

Bautista, last season’s finals MVP dished 5 assists and 5 steals despite lacking of practice. He bolstered a 7-2 run to give the AFP a 48-30 edge going into the halftime.

Unsportsmanlike fouls were also called on AFP’s Winston Sergio and Jerick Galiza after a collision with former college standout Harley Ng of the Defenders who finished with 11 points.

In a double elimination round format, both teams are in Group B together with the MMDA Blackwolves, BFP Firefighters, Ombudsman Graft Busters, and the Malacañan Kamao (formerly Malacañang Patriots).

Group A is composed of last season’s runner-up PNP Responders, NHA Builders, GSIS Furies, HOR Solons, DOJ Justice Boosters, and the latest addition to the cast, the BOC Transformers.

UNTV Cup, a brainchild public service project of Kuya Daniel Razon through UNTV News and Rescue, is aimed at gathering public servants from the three branches of the government – executive, legislative, and judicial – and different government agencies in the country to play basketball for charity.

Next schedule of games is set on September 10.

SCORES: 24-17, 48-30, 65-51, 85-71.

Written by: John Kenneth Jaramilla