Hapee overcome poor start, repel MP Hotel

Hapee went to its reserves to survive a fighting MP Hotel, pulling off an 87-81 victory while Cagayan Valley subdued league-leader Cebuana Lhuillier, 102-95, yesterday as they gain the twice-to-beat edges in the next round in the PBA D-League Foundation Cup at The Arena in San Juan.

Art dela Cruz came off the bench to fire 15 points, taking charge in the third quarter as the Aspirants’ Cup champions bucked a shaky first half stint with a strong charge in the last two quarters.

Dela Cruz scattered 10 points in the pivotal third as Hapee outscored MP Hotel, 28-21, and took a 62-60 lead entering the fourth for good.

Ola Adeogun and Baser Amer also dished out superb games coming off the bench, teaming up with Chris Newsome in the fourth period where they foiled the Warriors’ last-ditch bid to pull off a reversal.

Hapee thus closed out its elims campaign with three straight wins to clinch the quarterfinal incentive while the Rising Suns also earned the twice-to-beat edge by beating the Gems, who with the Café France Bakers, took the first two outright semis berths after finishing 1-2 in the elims.

The Rising Suns led by as many as 14 points but had to survive a mighty Gems’ fightback down the stretch to close out their campaign at 6-3.

“I’m always challenged when playing against Cebuana. I don’t know why but they bring out the best in me,” said Don Trollano, who finished with 25 points, including 4 of 8 shooting from behind the arc.

The Rising Suns also got splendid efforts from Michael Mabulac (22 points and 17 rebounds), Abel Galliguez (16 points), Jason Melano (11 points) and Eric Salamat (10 points) to clinch the win.

The Gems pulled to within 85-87 on a triple by Roider Cabrera with 4:27 left but Randy Dilay responded with his own trey in the next play and Mabulac scored inside and made two free throws to keep the Gems at bay.

Norberto Torres tallied 23 points while Mo Tautuaa and Simon Enciso had 18 markers apiece for the Gems, who lost their last two games for a 7-2 record.

“Just to make the playoff is our wish and I thought the guys really put a lot of effort out there to win this game. Right now everyone is really making a big sacrifice and I couldn’t ask for more,” said Hapee coach Ronnie Magsanoc.

Adeogun finished with 14 points, Newsome had 13 markers and Amer contributed 11 points for the Fresh Fighters, who ended up with a 6-3 record.

MP Hotel led by as many as eight points in the first half as the Warriors went 6 of 12 from behind the arc with Jopher Custodio going 3 for 3.

Custodio finished with 17 points including 5 for 5 from three-point range. Kazim Mirza also had 17 and Ray Nambatac added 15 for the Warriors, who have now lost five straight and fell to 1-7.