MANILA, Philippines - Host Misamis Oriental stunned top seed Cebu Landmasters RDAK-Mandaue, 70-63, to clinch the last berth in the SMC Liga Pilipinas Conference V Super Leg National Championship at the Xavier U gym in Cagayan de Oro City over the weekend.
The Meteors will dispute the crown with defending champion and archrival M. Lhuillier Kwarta Padala-Cebu Niños, who subdued Laguna, 90-82.
Ken Bono scored 14 points and pulled down eight rebounds to lead the Meteors to victory. He also copped the Best Player honors.
Dino Daa backed him up with 10 points.
Vic Manuel and Ariel Capus paced Mandaue with 21 and 14 points, respectively.
Sunday’s championship game marks the fourth straight conference that the Niños and Meteors will play for the National Championship.
The Meteors took the Conference II title before the Niños ruled the next two conferences.
In the second game, the Niños formalized their entry to the finals by disposing of the Golden Lions.
The Niños finished the preliminaries with a four-game sweep while the Meteors had a 3-1 card.
Stephen Padilla hit six triples in the first half as M. Lhuillier surged ahead at 52-41.
The Lions, behind Bryan Faundo and Glenn Bolocon, fought back and even grabbed the lead, 67-65, after three quarters.
But Ian Saladaga and Padilla led a big M. Lhuillier run en route to a 79-71 lead and the victory.
Padilla finished with eight triples and wound up with 26 points while Saladaga added 10 points.
Meanwhile, Bolocon won the MVP honors as well as the Best Scorer award. Other awardees were Mandaue’s Jun Tan as coach of the conference and Suzette Gentallan of the Meteors as executive of the conference.
Mark Magsumbol of Mandaue took the Sportsmanship Award.
Liga Pilipinas is backed by San Miguel, Molten, Summit Natural Drinking Water and Accel and is telecast on Basketball TV from Monday to Saturday at 5:30 p.m.