THE NLEX Road Warriors fell prey to a hungry Cagayan Valley squad as the Rising Suns slipped past the former champions, 78-74, in the PBA D-League Aspirants Cup on Tuesday at the Arena in San Juan City.
John Pinto provided the crucial points as he made four freethrows down the stretch to push the Suns to their first win over the Road Warriors since joining the league two years ago.
More importantly, it was their ninth win in 13 games, good for the fifth spot heading to the quarterfinal round.
The loss put NLEX’s record at 10-2 (win-loss), a half-game behind the league-leading Big Chill Superchargers, which won over the Boracay Rum Waves, 94-91, last Monday, all thanks to the heroics of Cebuano guard Brian Heruela.
Heruela, a former standout of the University of Cebu, had a double-double of 10 points and 10 assists along with five rebounds and three steals.
His most important contribution was his basket with 29.1 seconds left that gave Big Chill a 93-91 lead. Reil Cervantes settled the final tally by splitting his freethrows with seven seconds left. /Correspondent Jonas Panerio
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