The Cebu Greats pulled off an 80-79 victory over the Quezon Huskers to close in on the SportsPlus Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League 2026 Season pacesetters at the Mandaluyong City College of Science and Technology Gym on Monday.

Trailing, 68-77, Cebu scored 12, including the game-clinching layup by Simon Camacho in the last 46 seconds, and held Quezon to just two to notch their 16th win against 5 losses in the round-robin elimination phase of the two-division, 26-team tournament.

Cebu ranks fifth in the South division, behind Batangas City (13-3), Quezon Province (13-3), Biñan (16-4) and Gensan (14-4), which tamed Quezon City in the nightcap. The top four after the eliminations will have the home court advantage in the quarterfinal playoffs.

Alfrancis Tamsi, a former Husker, tallied 25 points, spiked by seven triples and two assists, to snare the SportsPlus Best Player honors.

“We worked hard for this,” said Tamsi. “After struggling in our home games, we made adjustments, and our game improved.”

Other Greats who delivered were Mark Meneses, with 11 points and 14 rebounds, Wowie Escosio with 10 points and five rebounds, Ichie Altamirano, with eight points and four rebounds, and Limuel Tampus with eight points.

The Huskers had chances to salvage the game, but a passing error by Cyrus Tabi and an inbound miscue by Joshua Yerro proved costly.

Camacho has two charities in the last 2.2 seconds, and, after missing the first, intentionally missed the second to kill the time.

The Huskers, who led as far as 43-29 and were in control for 33 minutes, drew 17 points, eight rebounds and four assists from Cedric Manzano, 12 points from Joshua Yerro, and nine points, six rebounds and two assists from Chris Lalata.