Road Warriors pull off lopsided win over Cagayan Valley Rising Suns in D-League Finals

When the NLEX Road Warriors are on their A-game, they’re truly in a league of their own.

This they emphatically showed as five players scored in double figures to lead the Warriors to a lopsided 87-63 win over the Cagayan Valley Rising Suns in Game One of the best-of-three finals in the PBA D-League Aspirants Cup yesterday at the Blue Eagle Gym in Quezon City.

Reigning NCAA MVP Ian Sangalang led the romp with 15 points, eight rebounds and two blocks while Cebuano big man Greg Slaughter, who was back after missing the last game because of an injury, added 11 points and four rebounds.

In addition, Nico Salva, Borgie Hermida and Garvo Lanete chipped in 10 points each to help the Road Warriors stand a win away from their fourth straight title in this league.

NLEX started to pull away in the second period as they crowded the Suns and forced them to miss 13 of their 16 attempts during that stretch. Slaughter, Salva, Sangalang and Borgie Hermida then conspired to put them on top, 49-35, at halftime.

The second half gave no respite for the embattled Suns, whose Cinderella story appears to near its end, as Salva scored the last six points in the third stanza for a huge 70-46 lead heading to the final canto.

Cebuano guard Eliud Poligrates, formerly of Southwestern University (SWU), led Cagayan Valley with 15 points while Joshua Webb and Mark Bringas tallied 11 each.