Ageless Asi tows NLEX to first franchise win

MANILA, Philippines -- NLEX carried over its D-League winning history to its pro league debut, hitting big strides with its veteran recruits in the crunch as the Road Warriors trounced the Globalport Batang Pier, 101-96, Tuesday night in the 2014-15 PBA Philippine Cup at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

The Road Warriors took a quick ride to the win-column as grizzled warriors Asi Taulava, KG Canaleta and Macmac Cardona showed up Globalport and its young stars Terrence Romeo and Stanley Pringle at endgame.

Asi Taulava, the league’s oldest player at 41, played with boundless energy, delivering 12 of his 21 points in the last six minutes of play.  

“It’s my whole preparation with my trainer. It helped me kept at a high level,” said Taulava on his smashing debut as a Road Warrior, 15 years after his maiden game in the local pro league with Talk n Text.

“We just believed with one another, especially with this group from our Air21 team. We just knew we can execute,” Taulava also said.

“It’s a four-quarter game. We’re kind of saying ‘let’s see in the fourth quarter if you (the Batang Pier) can still make those treys.’ They lived and died by three-pointers, while we stayed fresh to the finish,” Taulava said in beating out Globalport in the payoff period.

The Road Warriors were still down, 78-87, before working on a key 17-3 run to race ahead with 1:11 left to play then subsequently handed Adonis Tierra a win while coaching the team on an interim basis.

“Honestly, we had a problem with our game plan as we didn’t see them play in the offseason. We relied on videos, and we just saw in the flesh how difficult to match up with their big three,” said Tierra, referring to Romeo, Pringle and Alex Cabagnot.

The dynamic Globalport trio combined for almost three-fourth of the team’s total output but lost their firepower as NLEX shifted to two-three zone in the crunch.

“We just couldn’t stop them on one-on-one defense. Good thing our zone clicked,” said Tierra, a former head coach with the defunct Sta. Lucia Realty team.

Going down the drain with Globalport’s loss was Romeo’s career-high 33-point game.

Cabagnot added 23 points while Pringle, the season’s top draft pick, made heads turn with superb moves that netted him 14 points, five rebounds, five assists and three steals in his PBA debut.

Taulava asserted himself in the closing minutes, pouring 12 points in their decisive attack.

The one-time MVP winner also grabbed eight rebounds and issued five assists, including kick-outs parlayed by Jonas Villanueva and KG Canaleta to three-pointers.

Cardona came through with 20 points, Aldrech Ramos contributed 16 while Rico Villanueva tossed in 11.