PBA D-League: Kouame stars as Cignal-Ateneo hands St. Clare its first loss

MANILA, Philippines–Cignal-Ateneo shrugged off a slow start and zoomed to 88-66 clobbering of St. Clare College Virtual Reality for its third straight win Tuesday in the 2019 PBA D-League at JCSGO Gym in Cubao.

Behind Angelo Kouame’s efforts, the Blue Eagles turned a 46-28 deficit into a six-point lead, 59-53, thanks to a stifling 31-7 run that turned the tide to their favor for good.

Kouame ended up with an impressive line of 24 points and 29 rebounds that went with five rebounds for Cignal-Ateneo, which improved to 5-1 for the no. 2 spot in the Aspirants’ Group.

“(Our halftime talk was) direct to the point, that we weren’t doing what we said we’ll do before the game,” said coach Tab Baldwin. “We didn’t really make any adjustments and we just went back to basics, play like they wanted to win the game and played like any good team.”

Isaac Go chipped in 11 points including three treys, Thirdy Ravena added 10 points, five rebounds, and two steals, while Adrian Wong had 10.

St. Clare, meanwhile, absorbed their first defeat for the 4-1 record.

Darwin Lunor piled 12 points and 16 rebounds for the Saints, while Paul Santos had 12.