TITLEHOLDER EcoOil-La Salle overpowered Wang’s Basketball @27 Striker-Letran, 102-79, to secure the remaining outright semifinals berth in the PBA D-League Aspirants’ Cup last night at the Ynares Sports Arena.

The Green Archers ran out the gates early, racing to a 21-7 lead on a Kevin Quiambao lay-up midway in the first period and never looked back to close out their elimination round campaign with a 5-1 record.

“We’re lucky to be in the semis. It’s about time to reward the boys for the hardwork they’re doing but it’s still part of the process,” said deputy mentor Gian Nazario.

“We know there will be ups and downs, swerte na nasa semis kami but we still have a lot of things to work on.”

EcoOil-DLSU joined Marinerong Pilipino-San Beda, which also has a 5-1 slate in the semis. The Red Lions, who defeated the Green Archers, ended up as the No. 1 team in the eliminations.

The loss saw the Knights’ three-game winning streak came to an end.

Letran settled for a tie with University of Perpetual Help System Dalta and Centro Escolar University from third to fifth spots at 3-3.

The Altas and the Knights secured the twice-to-beat quarterfinals incentives over the Scorpions by virtue of superior quotient. Perpetual and Letran ranked third and fourth while CEU settled for the No. 5 slot.

Philippine Sports Performance, while dealt Marinero-San Beda’s lone loss of the tournament, finished sixth at 2-4.

The quarters is set on Tuesday at the Paco Arena, with the Altas taking on the Gymers at 2 p.m., to be followed by the 4 p.m. tussle between the Knights and the Scorpions.

Quiambao came through with a double-double outing of 28 points and 13 rebounds to go along with two assists while Prince Alao was the other EcoOil-DLSU player who scored in double-digits with 10 points and had five assists and four boards.

Kurt Reyson logged 21 points, seven assists and three rebounds while Kobe Monje chipped in 16 points and four boards for Wang’s-Letran.

The scores:

EcoOil-DLSU (102) – Quiambao 28, Alao 10, M. Phillips 9, Nonoy 8, Escandor 7, Manuel 7, Nwankwo 6, Abadam 6, B. Phillips 5, Cortez 4, Macalalag 4, Estacio 4, Gollena 3, David 1.
Wang’s-Letran (79) – Reyson 21, Monje 16, Santos 14, Cuajao 7, Bojorcelo 6, Fajardo 5, Javillonar 4, Tolentino 3, Laquindanum 2, Go 1, Brillantes 0, Alarcon 0, Ariar 0, Guarino 0.
Quarterscores: 27-19, 55-34, 75-55, 102-79.