MANILA, Philippines – Defending champion Pampanga and former titlist San Juan sustained their hot runs with contrasting wins in the 6th MPBL (Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League) Season on Monday at the FilOil EcoOil Centre in San Juan.
The Pampanga Giant Lanterns outran and outgunned the Manila SV Batang Sampaloc Stars, 92-63, to remain on top; while the San Juan Knights rallied to subdue the South Cotabato Warriors, 88-79, and tighten their grip on the second spot in the round-robin elimination phase of the two-division, 29-team tournament.
Pampanga chalked its 23rd straight victory after an initial loss; while San Juan notched its 13th consecutive win and climbed to 22-1. They pulled away from Nueva Ecija and Quezon Province, both with 18-3 slates, in the overall standings.
Trailing, 42-54, early in the third quarter, the Knights knotted the count at 61 following back-to-back triples by Agem Miranda.
Orlan Wamar sparked that San Juan comeback with 11 straight points against a bucket by Marwin Dionisio, 55-56, en route to clinching the Daily Fantasy Best Player honors.
San Juan, the 2019 MPBL champion, took control with a closing nine-point run in the third quarter, 70-63, and sealed South Cotabato's 10th loss in 25 starts with an eight-point cluster, 88-75, at the 1:32 mark.
Wamar wound up with 23 points, including four triples, four rebounds and three assists; AC Soberano with 19 points; Dexter Maiquez with 16 points and 13 rebounds; and Miranda with 10 points and five assists.
South Cotabato got 11 points from Dionisio and 10 from JP Calvo.
Unlike San Juan, Pampanga was in command throughout.
Powered by Archie Concepcion, Encho Serrano and Justine Baltazar, Pampanga led by as far as 92-60 in pulling Manila down to 16-8.
Concepcion posted 21 points, four rebounds, three steals and two assists and was chosen Best Player over Serrano, who tallied 23 points and three rebounds; and reigning Most Valuable Player Baltazar, who barely missed a triple-double with 10 points, 15 rebounds and nine assists on top of two steals in a solid match-up against Greg Slaughter.
The 7-foot Slaughter chalked 21 points and 11 rebounds, but no other Star tallied twin digits.
Pouncing on their slower rivals, the Giant Lanterns poured in 25 fast-break points against only 6 for the Stars.
Serrano and Concepcion fired 15 and 11 points, respectively, in the first half to lift Pampanga to a 47-30 spread from which Manila couldn't recover.
Earlier, Mindoro subdued Bacolod, 114-103, to improve to 8-16.
With five players submitting twin digits, the Mindoro Tamaraws surged ahead, 46-22, and proceeded to relegate Bacolod to the cellar at 1-23.
Jayvee Dela Cruz posted 22 points, six rebounds, six assists and six steals; Lester Reyes tallied 20 points, seven rebounds and four assists; while homegrown Jhon Jerrick Caspe barely missed a triple-double with 19 points, 11 assists, nine rebounds and two steals.
Other Tamaraws who delivered were Rudy Lingganay with 14 points and five rebounds; and Kint Ariar with 13 points, 10 rebounds and three assists.
Bacolod got 18 points from Rasham McCarthy, 16 from Yvan Ludovice and 14 from Alfred Sedillo.
The MPBL returns to the Caloocan Sports Complex on Tuesday with games pitting Zamboanga against Bulacan at 4 p.m., Bataan against Quezon Province at 6 pm., and Rizal against Caloocan at 8 p.m.