The Bacoor City Strikers welcomed back Michael Cañete with a 73-49 pounding of the San Juan Knights on Monday in the OKBet-Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League Fifth Season at the Strike Gymnasium in Bacoor.

Cañete, who had a forgettable stint with the San Miguel Beermen, returned to the Bacoor roster and shared the offensive load with former San Beda star James Kwekuteye as the Strikers stormed to a 73-45 spread en route to their sixth win against a loss in the elimination round of the 29-team tournament.

The 6-foot-4 Cañete fired 14 points while the 6-foot-2 Kwekuteye grabbed five rebounds for the Strikers.

Veteran Mark Yee had only seven points but pulled down 11 rebounds for the Strikers who also drew eight points and five rebounds from Jhan McHale Nermal and six points plus nine rebounds from Jammer Jamito.

San Juan, which absorbed its second loss in five outings, got 12 points and 13 rebounds from Michael Calisaan and 10 points from Orlan Wamar.

Earlier, Batangas City Embassy Chill and Caloocan Batang Kankaloo also routed their respective rivals.

The Batangas Athletics vented their ire on the Marikina Shoemasters, 82-56, while the Batang Kankaloo subdued the Oriental Mindoro Disiplinados, 99-74.

Marikina tumbled to 3-4 despite the 15-point effort of Raymond Casajeros and the 11-point output of Joe Gomez De Liaño.

In improving to 4-2, Caloocan drew 17 points from Paul Sanga, 15 from Gabby Espinas and 14 from Alfren Gayosa.

Oriental Mindoro skidded to 1-7.