PBA D-LEAGUE IMAGE by Nuki Sabio
MANILA, Philippines — Hog’s Breath stormed back in the second half to stun Cagayan Valley, 82-79, and secure a semifinals seat in the 2014 PBA D-League Aspirants Cup Tuesday at the Filoil Flying V Arena in San Juan.
The Razorbacks overcame an 18-point deficit, 22-40, as they outscored the Rising Suns, 55-39, in last two quarters.
“I just told the players that we were out-of-sync and we don’t know what we’re doing,” said Hog’s Breath coach Caloy Garcia. “We were not playing as a team at the start of the game, we were playing as individuals.”
“I told them at halftime we can still catchup. We had a terrible first half and the players played their hearts out in the second half.”
And Hog’s Breath did manage to catch up just in time with Francis Allera knotting the count at 70 as the game went down-the-wire.
Kevin Racal played a key role for the Razorbacks, who arranged a semifinals date with defending champion NLEX on Tuesday, with 15 points while Jansen Rios and Alex Austria chipped in 12 and 10 points, respectively, as all three shone while coming off-the-bench.
Austria, who also had six assists and a steal, made two insurance free throws with 12.6 seconds left that set the final tally.
The Suns, who drew 21 points from Andrian Celada, missed a free throw and two field goal attempts — all from 3-point distance — in the final 30 seconds.
The Razorbacks came away with an 83-78 win over the Road Warriors in their lone encounter in the elimination round last November 28.
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