Cagayan, Cebuana log wins in opener

THE CAGAYAN Rising Suns finally got the monkey off their backs as they notched their very first win in the PBA D-League after they defeated the Informatics Icons, 89-85, in the Aspirants Cup yesterday at the Arena in San Juan City.

In the other game, Cebuana Lhuillier prevailed over Boracay Rhum, 86-76.

The Rising Suns debuted in the D-League in the last conference, where they went winless in nine games.

They vowed to change that and did it in their very first outing in this conference, thanks to inspired efforts by Chris Exciminiano, former and current Arellano University standouts Adrian Celada and James Forrester, and Joshua Webb.

Exciminiano, a former ace of the Far Eastern University led the way with 20 points while the Fil-Canadian James Forrester and Celada each had 15 points apiece. Webb finished with 11.

Incidentally, there are two Cebuanos on the Suns’ roster in former University of the Visayas banger Edrian Lao and former Southwestern University star Eliud Poligrates. The two combined for 16 points but Lao nearly became the goat as his offensive foul with just 18.6 seconds left gave the Icons a chance to tie the game after trailing by seven, 80-87, with 1:16 left.

But the Icons did not take advantage and turned the ball over, which led to an uncontested layup by Forrester for the final tally.

Former University of Cebu standout Moncrief Rogado paced the Icons with 27 points./Correspondent Jonas Panerio