Asi leads decisive NLEX surge, Road Warriors hurdle B Pier

MANILA, Philippines - NLEX carried over its D-League winning ways 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, in the 2014-15 PBA Philippine Cup at the Smart Araneta Coliseum last night.

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.

Junmar Fajardo, getting into foul-trouble situation early, returned to deliver the goods in the crunch, and San Miguel Beer marked its first game under coach Leo Austria with an 87-79 drubbing of Rain or Shine later in the night.

“His early fouls turned to be a blessing in disguise. Returning fresh in the fourth, he asserted himself to lead us to the win,” said Austria of Fajardo’s game.

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.

But Taulava put all those numbers to naught as he asserted himself in the closing minutes where he poured in 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.

Meanwhile, the Purefoods Star Hotshots, the four-peat winners under the San Mig Coffee banner, tangle with the Alaska Milk Aces to start their campaign in PBA Season 40 at 7 tonight, also at the Big Dome.

With their name change comes a new mindset of being “growth-oriented” more than “goal-oriented.”

Coach Tim Cone explained that they want each member of the team to improve, hoping that the wins will come along.

Meralco and Barako Bull clash in the day’s other game at 4:15 p.m.