Gerald Bautista (light/cebuana) vs Cedric Ablaza PBA D-LEAGUE IMAGE / Nuki Sabio
MANILA, Philippines—Cebuana Lhuillier took control early en route to a 101-76 drubbing of winless Informatics Monday in the PBA D-League Foundation Cup at the FilOil Flying V Arena in San Juan.
The Gems banked on a balanced attack with big man June Dizon leading the way with 14 points.
“This time we are prepared for the game. Habang tumatagal, yung competition pataas nang pataas,” said Cebuana Lhuillier coach Beaujing Acot, who added that a top two finish at the end of the elimination round is “achievable” for his squad. “Yung mga talo namin yun ang preparasyon to get better, we took at that positively. I think the team really deserves to win. We didn’t look at Informatics as the last placed team.”
Former Icon Gerald Bautista added 13 points, Raymond Aguilar had 12 for the Gems (4-2), who had a 61-43 edge in the rebounding department.
Jeric Teng continued to put up big numbers offensively with 26 points, after scoring 32 in a 73-89 loss to Blackwater last Tuesday. Teng though, had seven turnovers.
Informatics (0-5) struggled to take care of the ball with 25 turnovers – 18 in the first half – which easily gave Cebuana Lhuillier 28 points off of those errors.
Cebuana Lhuillier also drew 11 points from James Martinez while Gab Banal, Paul Zamar and John Lopez finished with 10 points each.