Cagayan makes D-League semis

The Cagayan Valley Rising Suns advanced to the semifinals as they bounced back from their Tuesday afternoon defeat to avert disaster and defeated the Cebuana Lhuillier Gems, 88-73, in the quarterfinal round of the PBA D-League Aspirants Cup yesterday at the Ynares Sports Arena in Pasig City.

The Suns got a huge lift from former Southwestern University star Eliud Poligrates, who anchored a second-period breakaway with 11 points in that stretch.

After a listless performance on Tuesday, Poligrates, who hails from Camotes Island, scattered 11 points on three of four shooting from behind the arc and went perfect from the line as the Rising Suns outscored the Gems by 10 points in the period to take a commanding 48-29 advantage at halftime. Poligrates eventually finished with 16 points for the Rising Suns.

James Forrester and Mark Bringas had 15 points apiece while Adrian Celeda chipped in 10 for Cagayan, which will face the second-ranked Blackwater Sports in a best-of-three semifinal series starting next Tuesday.

In the other do-or-die game, the Jose Rizal University completed its upset of the Big Chill Superchargers with an 80-71 win.

JRU had its back against the wall in this series as it was faced with a twice-to-beat disadvantage against the higher-ranked Big Chill.

But John Villarias poured 10 of his 12 points in the third quarter to get things going for JRU and the Heavy Bombers went on to dominate the rest of the second half to complete their domination of the Superchargers.

Dexter Maiquez scored 18 and had 14 rebounds while Phillip Paniamogan chipped in 10 for JRU.