Marikina weathered Quezon Province's final assault to prevail, 73-70, on Tuesday and prove it deserves to be in the MPBL (Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League) Fifth Season playoffs at the Marikina Sports Center.

The Marikina Shoemasters wasted a 25-point spread, allowed the Quezon Huskers to knot the count at 70, before getting the lift from homegrowns RV Berjay and Felipe Chavez to finish the round-robin elimination round with a 16-12 record, good for the eighth and last playoff slot in the North division.

Berjay, a former Batang Gilas from the Ateneo Blue Eagles scored on a layup with 25 seconds left while Chavez split his charities with six seconds to go for the marginal points that deprived the Huskers of the homegrown edge in the playoffs starting on 6 October.

Quezon tumbled to 19-9 and skidded to fifth place behind Zamboanga Family's Brand Sardines, which finished with a 20-8 slate in the South division.

As a result, instead of hosting the Zamboanguenos on 14 October, the Huskers will have to fly over to Zamboanga City for Game 2 of their best-of-three quarterfinal series.

Way behind, 34-59, late in the third quarter, the Huskers closed the gap, 60-66, behind a 10-point cluster spiked by an Alfrancis Tamsi triple and then bunched eight points, capped by another Tamsi triple, to turn the sleeper into a thriller, 70-70, with 29 seconds remaining.

However, the Huskers misfired after
that, including a
buzzer-beater triple by Mon Abundo that could have forced overtime.

The 6-foot-4 Berjay posted 14 points, five rebounds and three assists to earn best player honors at the expense of teammates Joe Gomez De Liano with 10 points, eight rebounds and four assists, and Chavez with 10 points, eight rebounds and two assists.