Marinerong Pilipino outlasted BRT Sumisip Basilan-St. Clare, 69-59, to take Game 1 of their Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) D-League Foundation Cup best-of-three championship series yesterday at the Ynares Sports Arena.

Rev Dupitado led the balanced scoring with 12 points while William McAloney and Eloy Poligrates added nine points apiece for the Skippers, who moved one win away from claiming their first crown.

“The pressure is always there,” said Skippers head coach Efren Garcia, who needed a pair of defensive stops from Poligrates in the end to secure the victory.

“I just told my players we need to stick with our gameplan and we need just need to give our best efforts. We’re happy because they have their best effort here in Game 1 and hopefully they add more to that effort in the next game,” he added.

Marinerong Pilipino was poised to break away early after taking a 21-8 advantage after the first period.

The Skippers kept the big lead entering the break, 43-24 at halftime and were holding a 61-50 lead when Saints big man Mohammed Pare engineered a run that cut the lead to seven, 57-64, with 1:52 left in the game.

But Marinerong Pilipino kept its composure and Leonard Santillan drained two huge free throws to put the game away, 66-57, under a minute left.

Despite a 1-0 series lead, Garcia cautioned his players not to be over confident as he expects the Saints to bounce back in Game 2 and tie the series.

“Maybe we need to focus on correcting our mistakes. It would be a hard game because we all saw that they are giving their best efforts, especially their coaches who are making the right adjustments,” Garcia said.

Japs Bautista pumped in 17 points while Pare added 14 points, 12 rebounds and two bocks, Joshuan Fontilla and Junie Hallare each had seven markers for the Saints, who will try to even the series on Wednesday next week.