NLEX Road Warriors clinch PBA-D League 3-peat

The jubilant NLEX Road Warriors pose for press photographers minutes after clinching the PBA D-League Foundation Cup title on Thursday, June 14, 2012. CELEST FLORES/INQUIRER.net

MANILA, Philippines—There’s simply no stopping the NLEX Road Warriors.

And there’s no better proof than the sweep of the maiden season of the PBA D-League as NLEX clobbered Big Chill, 82-62, in game two of the finals Thursday to claim the Foundation Cup title—and complete a three-peat.

And the Road Warriors did so in a record-setting fashion with a 13-0 sweep of the conference.

“I didn’t expect to sweep this because teams have really beefed up,” said head coach Boyet Fernandez. “It’s an achievement, it’s one for the books. But we really worked hard for this.”

NLEX poured half of its eight three-point conversions in the final quarter and turned the game into another rout, leading by as huge as 22 with three minutes left in the game.

In game one, the Road Warriors rolled over the Superchargers, 86-71.

Emman Monfort paced NLEX with 13 points, Ian Sangalang had 11 points while Kirk Long, Garvo Lanete and Calvin Abueva dropped 10 points apiece.

Back-to-back connections from downtown from Long and Abueva stretched the lead of the Road Warriors, who even trailed by two at the end of the first quarter, to 73-51, which virtually sealed the win.

NLEX ran around and thrived in the break, getting 12 fast-break points compared with Big Chill’s five.

Big Chill, the same squad—though with new valuable pieces—which pushed NLEX to the brink in the semifinals last conference, just couldn’t summon enough strength to topple down the defending champions.

The superchargers tried to mount a run in the third quarter to halt the Road Warriors building momentum as they trimmed the lead down to seven, 42-35, but that ended up as their last good run.

Raffy Reyes, who had a game-high 19 points in a losing cause, capped Big Chill’s last run with a reverse lay-in with two minutes left in the third, 35-42.

Keith Jensen and Mac Montilla combined for 25 points for the Superchargers, who paled in comparison with NLEX in the assist department, 9-17.