San Juan flexes muscles; Valenzuela, Bataan shine

San Juan continued to impress while Valenzuela pulled off a stunner in the Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League Sixth Season elimination round late Wednesday at the Olivarez College Gym in Parañaque.

The San Juan Knights trounced the Sarangani Marlins, 80-65, for their third straight win in as many starts even as the Valenzuela Classics banked on Orin Catacutan to snap Parañaque’s four-win run, 70-68, in the nightcap of a triple bill.

In the opener, Bataan scored the game’s last six points to stun Bulacan, 92-90.

Catacutan canned a turn-around jumper with 6.3 seconds left to push Valenzuela into the upper half of the standings with a 3-2 record.

Parañaque’s Jielo Razon then missed a probable game-winning triple at the buzzer to the disappointment of the overflow home crowd.

With Parañaque behind, 55-63, the Patriots dropped a 12-3 salvo behind Razon and Mark Yee to seize control at 67-66 with 1:07 seconds left.

Lanky Dennis Santos, however, scored on a lay-up to shove Valenzuela ahead, 68-67, before Keith Pido knotted the count at 68.

Valenzuela sued for time and devised plays designed for Catacutan, who delivered without fear. Catacutan wound up with 13 points, seven rebounds and two steals while Filipino-American CJ Payawal came through with 13 points and 11 rebounds.

Santos finished with 10 points and six rebounds.

Parañaque drew 14 points, 17 rebounds, five assists plus four steals from Razon, and 14 points plus six assists from Robbie Manalang. Yee finished with 13 points and 11 rebounds while JP Sarao chalked 13 points and five rebounds.

Unlike Valenzuela, San Juan was dominant throughout, leading by as far as 53-29 behind the guns of AC Soberano, Zach Huang, Michael Malonzo and John Galinato.

Soberano posted 20 points, three rebounds, three steals plus two assists while Huang tallied 13 points plus seven rebounds. Malonzo and Galinato contributed 11 points each for the Knights, who slumped to 1-4, drew 13 points each from Coy Alves and Felix John Villarente and 10 points from Yukihiro Kawamura.

Trailing, 86-90, the Bataan Risers found saviors in Mitchelle Maynes, Yves Sazon and Jeff Santos to climb to 3-2.

Maynes split his two charities, Sazon banged in a triple, while Santos stole off a bad pass to deliver the clincher for Bataan, which bucked the 29-point, 11-assist, five-rebound, two-steal effort of Bulacan’s Paolo Hubalde.