THE CAGAYAN Valley Rising Suns and the Big Chill Superchargers look to barge into the semifinals as they take on separate opponents at the start of the quarterfinal round in the PBA D-League Aspirants Cup today at the Arena in San Juan City.
The third-seeded Rising Suns face six-seed Cebuana Lhuillier Gems at 2 p.m. while the fourth-seeded Superchargers battle no.5 Jose Rizal University Heavy Bombers at 4 p.m. in a pair of quarterfinal matches that are expected to be physical and fierce.
Cebuana Lhuillier defeated Cagayan Valley, 86-82, in their only meeting in the elimination round while Big Chill edge JRU, 77-76, on Mark Canlas’ follow up at the buzzer.
The Rising Suns look to continue their impressive turnaround from a winless campaign last season to just one win away from the semifinals. They finished the eliminations with a 6-4 (win-loss) record – third best in the conference – and missing an outright semifinal spot just barely./Correspondent Jonas Panerio