THE CEBUANA Lhuillier Gems remained unbeaten after they scuttled the Keramix Mixers, 95-88, in the PBA D-League Foundation Cup yesterday at the JCSGO Gym in Quezon City.
Fil-Tongan Moala Tautaa and Simon Enciso each had 24 markers to power the Gems to their third straight win.
It was a dominant victory for Cebuana Lhuillier as they led by as many as 34 points behind the inside play of Tautaa, who added 10 boards and the outside sniping of Enciso who rattled home seven three-pointers.
Keramix, on the other hand, had no chance in this one as it trailed, 11-23, after the opening 10 minutes and lagged behind by a whopping 30 at halftime, 25-55. The loss dropped Keramix to 2-1.
Keith Agovida had 19 while Jiovanni Jalalon added 14 to the losing cause.
In the second game, the MP Hotel-Letran pulled off an improbable 107-106 shocker over the Cagayan Valley Rising Suns as Rey Nambatac hit a long buzzer-beating triple that gave Manny Pacquiao’s amateur squad its first win of the competition after suffering two straight blowouts.
The Suns held a 106-104 lead after Jason Melano split his free-throws with six seconds left. However, that was all the time that the Warriors needed as Cebuano Jan Colina found Nambatac, a native of Cagayan de Oro, for the game-winning walk-off triple.
Jopher Custodio led MP Hotel with 27 points and 10 rebounds while Nambatac ended up with 17 and eight boards.
Melano, Mike Mabulac and Abel Galliguez each had 21 for Cagayan Valley.