The improbable happened to the mightiest team in the PBA D-League as the high-powered NLEX Road Warriors got stunned by the Café France Bakers, 52-66, yesterday at the Trinity University of Asia gym in Quezon City.
The win snapped the Road Warriors’ 24-game winning streak, which dated back to the semifinal round of this same tournament earlier this year.
NLEX’s biggest thorn was not Mike Parala or Roger Pogoy. Rather, it was little-known Marion Magat who scored 13 points and bagged 14 rebounds to be the difference-maker in this game.
The Bakers’ defense also held up as they kept NLEX’s myriad of stars from getting in their comfort zones en route to tallying a measly four points in the final canto.
In the second game, Carlo Lastimosa erupted with 32 points while Ola Adeogun returned after missing two games and tallied 14 points and 14 rebounds as Fruitas completed the day of upsets by beating Big Chill, 88-81, in the second game.
After trailing for three quarters, Café France outscored NLEX, 22-4, in the fourth quarter.
The Bakers took control by opening the period with 11-0 run for a 55-48 lead that held to the end. Jens Knuttel scored 14 points, all in the second half, to showed the way for the Bakers.
The Road Warriors led by as many as 12 points in the third quarter and had a 48-44 lead entering the last 10 minutes. But they missed their first 10 attempts of the fourth period, allowing café France to gain some momentum. /Correspondent Jonas Panerio