Manila, Rizal overcome foes

Manila swamped Bicolandia, 128-86, while Rizal edged Iloilo, 70-68, in the Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League Sixth Season late Thursday at the Orion Sports Center in Bataan.

The Manila SV Batang Sampaloc Stars led throughout and by as far as 108-61 in chalking their 17th win against seven losses in the round-robin elimination phase of the two-division, 29-team tournament.

The Rizal Xentromall Golden Coolers, on the other hand, rode on Jerie Pingoy and Jeric Serrano endgame heroics to raise their record to 13-11.

Pingoy drilled in two charities with 48.9 seconds to go, while Serrano scored four in a 10-point homestretch run by Rizal then split his two free throws in the last 12.7 seconds for the final count.

Serrano posted 10 points and eight rebounds to clinch the Daily Fantasy best player honors over Rocky Acidre, who tallied 12 points and four rebounds, and Kraniel Viloria with 10 points, eight rebounds, five assists and four steals.

Though the Golden Coolers made only 23 of 80 field goal attempts, they compensated with more points from turnovers (20-6) and second-chance points (28-11) to pull the United Royals down to 8-15 and virtually out of contention for the top eight playoff slots in the South Division.

Manila, assured of a playoff spot in the North Division, drew 29 points from Rabeh Al-Hussaini, 26 from Tonino Gonzaga, 12 from Carl Bryan Cruz, 11 from seven-footer Greg Slaughter and 10 from Joshua Torralba.

Also-ran Bicolandia (3-20) got 22 points from Shaquille Alanes and 20 from Lord Howard Casajeros.