La Salle retains D-League crown

MANILA, Philippines — Different system, same result.

EcoOil-La Salle was crowned king of the PBA D-League Aspirants’ Cup for the second straight season, sweeping Marinerong Pilipino-San Beda with a gritty 89-74 win in Game 2 yesterday at the Ynares Sports Arena in Pasig.

Kevin Quiambao played true to his Most Valuable Player citation early on, erupting for 26 points and 10 rebounds as the Green Archers blanked the Red Lions, 2-0, in the short best-of-three series.

Evan Nelle scattered 16 points, five rebounds, seven assists and six steals, Mark Nonoy had 14 including a buzzer-beating trey at the half while Mike Phillips hauled down a 12-10 output for La Salle, which ruled last year’s D-League with former mentor Derrick Pumaren at helm.

Topex Robinson, who left the coaching chores to deputy Gian Nazario in the D-League, took over from Pumaren and has implemented a new system that hardly hampered La Salle’s reign.

“We’re just really happy with how these guys performed throughout the tournament. ‘Yung core namin (from last championship), nandito pa rin naman but what’s big here is the maturity of the guys,” said Nazario as La Salle also avenged its heartbreaking loss in the Filoil title showdown last week.

The Green Archers, after a perfect run in 11 games, bowed to the University of the Philippines in the Filoil EcoOil Preseason Cup finale.