Red-hot Batangas torches Biñan
Levi Hernandez, who extended the Rum Masters’ run with a triple early in the third quarter, delivered 23 points, three rebounds, two assists and two blocks to earn Best Player honors
Daily TribuneLevi Hernandez, who extended the Rum Masters’ run with a triple early in the third quarter, delivered 23 points, three rebounds, two assists and two blocks to earn Best Player honors
LEVI Hernandez catches fire, helping Batangas City post a 79-72 win over Biñan in the Sixth Season of the MPBL.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF MPBL
Batangas leaned on a scoring spree to subdue Biñan, 79-72, and rev up its drive in the Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League Sixth Season at the FPJ Arena in San Jose, Batangas,
Trailing, 22-26, Batangas City Tanduay Rum bunched 12 points to pull ahead at halftime, 34-26, and never looked back to tally its 10th win against two losses in the round-robin elimination phase of the 29-team tournament.
Levi Hernandez, who extended the Rum Masters' run with a triple early in the third quarter, delivered 23 points, three rebounds, two assists and two blocks to earn Best Player honors.
Jeckster Apinan supported Hernandez with 14 points, four rebounds plus three assists and so did Cedric Ablaza with 12 points, eight rebounds and four assists.
Back-to-back layups by Hernandez and Apinan and a triple by Ablaza shoved Batangas ahead, 71-55, but Biñan managed to close the gap at 68-74 with only 31.7 seconds left through the efforts of Roger Rocacurva, Carlo Lastimosa and Mark Cardona.
Biñan, which fell to 6-4, got 17 points each from Nino Canaleta and Lastimosa and 12 from Rocacurva, all in the fourth quarter.
Other games saw Quezon City nip Negros, 83-79, and Pangasinan trounce Mindoro, 81-62.
Quezon City TODA Aksyon's Paeng Are and Rhinwill Yambing to erase a 58-67 deficit early in the fourth quarter en route to its fifth victory against seven defeats.
Are poured all of his 12 points while Yambing added 8 of his team-high 23 points, highlighted by a power slam, in the last 10 minutes as Quezon City overtook Negros' 4-9 slate.
Yambing also chalked nine rebounds and two steals while Are added four rebounds and four assists for Quezon City Coach Egay Macaraya.
Negros crumbled despite the 27-point, six-rebound, four-assist effort of Renz Palma, the 17-point, five-rebounfd, two-steal output of Hubert Cani and the 11-point, seven-rebound, two-steal contribution of James Paul Una.
Unlike Quezon City, the Pangasinan Heatwaves breezed past the Mindoro Tamaraws, leading by as far as 64-41 before cruising to their fourth win in 12 starts.
Ralph Robin paced Pangasinan with 21 points and three rebounds, followed by Ian Melencio with 12 points, eight assists and four rebounds, and Ed Daquiaog with 10 points.
