BY NOLI CORTEZ

STA. Lucia Realty made an early statement and repeated it for most of last night.

The result was probably a league record and a cruising 111-97 victory over hapless Welcoat in the Smart PBA Fiesta Conference at the Araneta Coliseum.

The sterling one-on-one defense on the Dragons’ imports paid handsome dividends for the Realtors, enabling them to sustain for the most part their strong start and pull off the win that cut short a two-game losing streak.

"(Coree) Santee usually penetrates and creates opportunities for his teammates and so their (Welcoat’s) plays usually emanate from him so I told (Dennis) Miranda to concentrate on him," said SLR coach Boyet Fernandez.

"Si ‘Cap" (Dennis Espino) naman ang nag-take charge kay (Marquis) Gainous and they really did a terrific job defending those guys."

Those efforts left Santee and Gainous scoreless in the first quarter, widely believed as the first time in the 33-year-old league two reinforcements went dry over a frame.

The likes of Wesley Wilson and Ryan Reyes, meanwhile, took over spearheading the offense, propping the Realtors to as much as a 55-30 lead and into their fourth win in six games.

Welcoat’s hopes of notching a third straight win got a breath of life when Jay-R Reyes, Gainous and Robert Wainwright brought the Dragons within 62-71, still 5:01 left in the third period.

But Fernandez re-assembled his team through a timely timeout and Reyes typified the resolve with eight straight points during a 10-2 run and SLR was suddenly comfortably ahead anew 81-64.

"I again told them what I emphasized at halftime, that Welcoat is very dangerous at siguradong babalik at babalik iyan," related Fernandez. "I also told my players that we have to continue playing our defense."

The Dragons came no closer than 14 points the rest of the way and dropped to 2-5 slate.

It was a win made more stirring by the fact Jay-R Reyes’ 23 points led Welcoat with Gainous, averaging 27.5 points before the game, held to only 14 and Santee, who had averages of 17.7 ppg and 7.3 assists, limited to only 12 and 3.

Wilson led all scorers with 24 points to go with 9 boards while Reyes added 19 and 6. Dennis Daa had a career-high 11 points while Kelly Williams chipped in 10 points and missed a double-double by just a rebound.

Before notching back-to-back wins over Purefoods and Magnolia, Welcoat had lost 15 straight dating back to the Philippine Cup. Ironically, it was the Realtors themselves who started the Dragons’ skid with an 84-83 win last Nov. 21.

There was to be no such close calls last night, not with Gainous going 0-of-4 from the field and Santee 0-of-3 in the opening frame.

With Wilson and Williams doing the most damage, SLR raced to a 29-15 lead which it padded to 61-40 at the half.

Meanwhile, Ranbil Tongco got away with 27 points as Caloocan-Batang Alaska Aces held off Antipolo-Batang Barangay Ginebra Kings 62-56 yesterday at the start of the Burlington-Jr. PBA Summer League at the Araneta Coliseum.