Cagayan warms up for rival Hapee

Cagayan Valley primes up for its keenly-awaited showdown with Hapee as it takes on Tanduay Rhum today, hoping to nail another win and tie the Fresh Fighters in the lead in the PBA D-League Aspirants’ Cup at the JCSGO gym in Cubao.

“We want to get to Hapee’s game securing the Top 2 spot. It’s nice to have a showdown between two unbeaten teams,” said Abel Galliguez, who came off the bench and shot 11 of his game-high 20 points to lead the Rising Suns to an 89-78 victory against the AMA University Titans last Monday.

That stretched Cagayan Valley’s unbeaten run to eight with another victory in their 4 p.m. showdown with the Rhum Masters keeping them in step with the Fresh Fighters heading to their duel on Jan. 22.

But for the third straight game, the Rising Suns will be without coach Alvin Pua, who will be serving the last of his three-game suspension for physically contacting a game official.

“We definitely missed coach Alvin. But I think our character… we want to play as a team regardless who’s coaching us and who’s leading us,” said Galliguez.

Tanduay, meanwhile, is raring to bounce back from a 59-68 loss to Jumbo Plastic last Monday that dropped the Rhum Masters to sixth at 4-5.

In the other games, Café France tries to improve its 6-2 card as it battles Cebuana Lhuillier (4-3) at 2 p.m. while Bread Story-LPU (25) and Wangs Basketball (2-5) collide at 12 noon.