Crossing paths with the team they used to see action for, Cholo Villanueva and players of the Tanduay Rum Masters were ecstatic to come away with victory.

Villanueva and other former members of the Makati Super Crunch in the MPBL – Jeckster Apinan, Cedrick Ablaza, Jhong Baloria, King Importante, and Rudy Lingganay among others – recently dealt the AFP-FSD Makati Cavaliers a 106-60 beatdown in the FilBasket League.

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Besides a statement victory, Villanueva and his troops came away with a result that put them in much better position to finally make it all the way.

"We've become more mature when we separated paths," head coach Villanueva said of their past with the Makati club.

"Now, we're trying to show that we're a better and wiser team. But more importantly we have something to prove, a chip on our shoulder."

Among these players, it was Baloria who played as if he had something to prove, torching the Cavaliers with 26 points on 4-of-8 shooting from beyond the arc.

Joshua Gonzales finished with 14 points followed by Apinan, who had a double-double of 12 points and 10 rebounds, while Ablaza added 11 markers on top of five assists and a block.

Three years ago, Villanueva and some of his key players had a falling out with Makati team management in the MPBL.

Villanueva questioned management's "load management" decision to not field in its key players in one of its games, leading to the exodus of the coach and players.

At that time, Villanueva and his squad were leading the tournament in the Northern Division with a 20-4 win-loss record.

He and Tanduay are in a similar situation in the ongoing FilBasket tournament, having won seven in as many games. With an unscathed record, the team sits atop the standings with no plans of slowing down.

"Three years ago, there were things which happened beyond our control," Villanueva said, recalling the fallout with his previous team. "Now, we're smarter. We're more mature."

For the coach, they're not looking too far ahead.

"We want to worry with what's in front of us," he added. "We're taking it possession by possession until we win a game. We know that winning streaks or a good elimination round standing doesn't mean anything without a championship."

"But we will be smarter this time and we're more motivated. The past three years, we went on separate ways, they played for different teams and I coached other teams. Now, we have a chance of doing it together again. We don't want to lose this opportunity."