Biñan Tatak Gel crawled out of a deep hole to nip Cebu, 78-77, in the SportsPlus Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League 2026 Season at the jampacked Hoops Stadium in Lapu-Lapu City, Mactan on Thursday.

Down by eight points with 4:07 to go, Biñan poured in 12 points against only three by Cebu to snatch its 12th straight win and climb to 14-3 in the round-robin elimination phase of the two-division, 27-team tournament.

Carlo Lastimosa presided over Biñan’s fiery rally with four points in the last three minutes, including the marginal basket, while Jaymar Gimpayan and Pamboy Raymundo added three points each, and Nic Cabañero two.

It was Kenny Rocacurva, however, who captured the SportsPlus Best Player honors with 19 points, seven rebounds, five steals and two assists in 28:49 of play.

“We just played our game and coped up with Cebu’s defense,” said Rocacurva, a Cebuano from San Francisco, Camotes Islands.

Cabañero posted 14 points, four rebounds and three assists, Lastimosa 12 points and four rebounds, and Gimpayan 12 points plus two assists for Biñan, which caught up with Gensan and moved closer to Batangas City (14-2), which beat Basilan Steel, 87-71, in the first game, and Quezon Province (12-2) in the South division playoff race.

The Cebu Greats fell to 14-4 despite Jun Manzo’s 23 points, spiked by five triples, and two assists, and Mark Meneses’ 13 points, 12 rebounds, eight assists, three blocks and two steals.

The Batangas City Tanduay Athletics pulled away, 84-61, with a 19-4 salvo sparked by Rhinwill Yambing and Ino Comboy en route to their 12th straight win.

Jhan Nermal paced Batangas with 23 points, including three triples, seven rebounds, three assists and two steals, followed by Comboy with 19 points, four assists and three rebounds.

Apart from Nermal, who earned Best Player honors, and Comboy, who drilled in five triples, other Athletics who shone were Yambing with 11 points and two rebounds, and Kraniel Viloria, with eight points and four rebounds.

“Our focus is really on defense and to execute our plays,” Nermal said.

“We’re not thinking about being No. 1, but our coming games.”

Basilan, which tumbled to 8-10, drew 12 points from Neil Owens, 11 points, 10 rebounds and two steals from John Wilson, and nine points plus five assists from Gab Cometa.