Dominant Huskers crush Shoemasters

The Quezon Huskers battered the Marikina Shoemasters, 93-67, to extend their hot run in the SportsPlus Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League 2026 Season at the Batangas City Coliseum on Thursday.

Dominant underneath and sharper from afar, the Huskers pulled away, 75-39, late in the third quarter en route to their ninth straight win in the round-robin elimination phase of the two-division, 28-team tournament.

San Juan trounced Pasig, 114-79, in the opener, while Batangas dumped Sarangani, 111-64, in the second game to keep in step with Quezon, the only unscathed squad left nearing the halfway mark of the playoff race.

With Michael Canete, Cedric Manzano and Cyrus Tabi snagging seven rebounds each, the Huskers posted a big 54-39 edge in rebounds, which they exploited to score more points in the paint, 58-26.

Canete added 15 points, five steals, and three assists to clinch the SportsPlus Best Player over Manzano, who also had 13 points, two assists and two steals, and Jolo Manansala, who tallied 11 points plus three rebounds for the back-to-back South division champions.

Marikina, which skidded to 5-9, got 14 points and three rebounds from Jeepy Faundo, 11 points and three rebounds from Jason Strait, and 11 points plus four rebounds from RR Casajeros.

Meanwhile, the Athletics blitzed to a 9-0 start, pulled away at halftime, 62-31, and never slowed down to notch their ninth consecutive win and improve to 11-2, trailing the Huskers and the Gensan Warriors (12-2).