Revellers, Jawbreakers move to D-League final

Game Tuesday (Pasig City Sports Center)

4 p.m. – Zark’s Burgers-LPU vs Che’Lu Bar and Grill-SSC

MANILA, Philippines — Che’Lu Bar and Grill-San Sebastian and Zark’s Burgers-Lyceum finished off their fancied rivals in contrasting fashions to arrange a showdown of lower ranked sides for the PBA D-League Aspirants’ Cup crown at the Ynares Sports Arena in Pasig yesterday.

The No. 6 Zark’s Burgers-Lyceum unleashed a torrid scoring run in the third quarter as it shut down the second seeded Marinerong Pilipino Skippers, 102-89, to become the lowest-seeded team to advance to the finals of the league.

Jesper Ayaay, CJ Perez and Mike Nzeusseu combined in a big 26-4 Jawbreakers run in the third to turn a 48-54 deficit to a 16-point bulge, 74-58. They held sway from there to frustrate the Skippers.

Earlier, Jeff Viernes came up big down the stretch as Che’Lu Bar and Grill-San Sebastian rallied from 19 points down and completed its reversal of top seed Akari-Adamson, 93-90.

Viernes hit a jumper to shatter the 90-all count in the last 18.2 seconds then canned in a pressure-packed charity to secure the victory for the fourth-ranked Revellers and a sweep of their best-of-three semifinal face-off.

Game One of the finals is set at 4 p.m. on Tuesday at the Pasig City Sports Center.

“We’re so grateful we’re given the opportunity to play in the finals. It’s not about Topex Robinson or CJ Perez. It’s everybody helping each other out,” said Zark’s coach Robinson.

Perez rifled in 23 points, six rebounds, five assists and four steals to lead the way for the Jawbreakers who also drew 15 points and nine rebounds from Nzeusseu, 13 markers from Ayaay, 12 (nine in the fourth) from Pretta, 10 from Jaycee Marcelino and eight (six in the fourth) from Jayvee Marcelino.