PBA-DL: Cagayan Valley makes it two in a row with win over Boracay Rum

From winless to lording it over at the top of the standings, the Cagayan Valley Rising Suns are in the midst of a remarkable turnaround. The Rising Suns, which went 0-9 last conference, won their second straight at the expense of the Boracay Rum Waves, leading from start to finish in an 88-79 victory, Tuesday at the FilOil Flying V Arena. "Lumamang kami ng almost 20 points pero nag-relax na kami," admitted Cagayan Valley head coach Alvin Pua. "Yung maturity namin as a team kulang pa talaga." After Adrian Celada scored to give Cagayan Valley a 77-64 lead in the fourth quarter, the Waves countered with a 6-0 run of their own to slice the lead to seven. Later in the fourth quarter, the Waves mounted another run to inch closer in the game. Raymund Ilagan scored with a lay-up at the 2:27 mark to trim the Cagayan lead to just three points at 82-79. However, Ping Exciminiano and Raymund Almazan sealed the deal for the Rising Suns with six straight points. Exciminiano, a former FEU Tamaraw, continued his tremendous start to this season by leading all scorers with 23 points. Almazan, who was playing his first game as a member of the Rising Suns after reaching the NCAA Finals with the Letran Knights, tallied 20 points, while also grabbing a monstrous 18 rebounds and swatting four shots. "Gusto ata bumawi ni Almazan sa pagkatalo ng Letran sa San Beda kaya maganda ang ipinakita niya ngayon," joked Pua after the game. Even though the Waves got good games from Roider Cabrera and Ken Acibar, with the duo combining for 28 points, they sorely missed the scoring from Paolo Taha and Toto Bandaying, who led their team in their last game. Taha only managed seven points while Bandaying came up with only a single three point shot in seven tries. - AMD, GMA News The scores: Cagayan Valley Rising Suns 88: Exciminiano 23, Almazan 20, Webb 12, Forrester 7, Bringas 7, Poligrates 6, Lao 5, Melano 4, Celada 4, Bartolo 0, Chiong 0, Macuha 0 Borazay Rum 79: Cabrera 17, Acibar 11, Viernes 10, Khobuntin 9, Ilagan 9, Taha 7, Tolentino 6, Sabellina 4, Siruma 3, Bandaying 3, Eguilos 0, Foronda 0 Quarter scoring: 29-13, 47-36, 69-61, 88-79