The Batangas City Tanduay Athletics bled for points, but survived the Quezon Huskers’ final lunge, 65-62, in the SportsPlus Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League 2026 Season at the Quezon Convention Center in Lucena City.

Held to six points in the fourth quarter, Batangas courted disaster when Ino Comboy lost ball possession with 10.5 seconds left, only for Quezon’s Christian Pagaran to commit an errant pass stolen by Jhan Nermal, who got fouled in a penalty situation.

Nermal sank both charities with 5.6 seconds to go for the final count as Quezon gunner Judel Fuentes missed a triple before the final buzzer sounded.

Batangas notched its eighth straight win and climbed to 12-2, surpassing Quezon’s 9-2, and trailing only Gensan (13-2) in the race for playoff spots in the South division.

Rhinwill Yambing tallied 17 points, four rebounds and two steals to edge Nermal, with 17 points, seven rebounds and two steals, for the SportsPlus Best Player honors.

Dawn Ochea, who accounted for Batangas’ lone field goal in the fourth quarter, Abdul Sawat and Mark Cruz contributed six points each.

Quezon’s Cyrus Tabi could have knotted the count at 63, but missed the second of three free throws off a Nermal foul with 32.7 seconds to go.

The Huskers, the reigning back-to-back South champions, surged ahead, 17-7, behind back-to-back triples by Fuentes and Tabi, but Nermal, Yambing, Ochea and Comboy combined to catch up at 21.

Batangas, however, countered with a 20-5 run, presided over by Yambing and Sawat, to seize control at 43-30.