Late rally powers Cebu past Batangas

Cebu leaned on Limuel Tampus' fourth-quarter rampage to stun Batangas City, 70-67, and barge into the South Division semifinal round of the SportsPlus Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League (MPBL) 2026 Season at the Batangas City Coliseum on Wednesday.

Tampus, a 6-foot-2 high flyer from the Emilio Aguinaldo College Generals, pumped in 12 of his 14 points in that span to push the fifth-seeded Cebu Greats to their second straight win over the fourth-seeded Batangas City Tanduay Athletics in the best-of-three quarterfinal series.

With Batangas ahead, 61-58, Cebu bunched nine points, five by Tampus and four by Dhon Reverente, 67-61, only 14.2 seconds remaining, sending many Athletics supporters heading to the exits.

Batangas' Rhinwill Yambing canned a triple with 11 seconds left, but Ron Dennison made two free throws to decide the outcome, 69-64 with 9.2 seconds to go.

Tampus also collared six rebounds. highlighted by a follow-up off his own miss in the last 36.2 seconds to clinch the SportsPlus Best Player honors over Mark Meneses, who posted 10 points, 16 rebounds, two assists and two blocks.

Ichie Altamirano contributed 10 points, three rebounds and three assists before fouling out in the homestretch, and Wowie Escosio added 11 points for the Greats, who took Game 1 via a 78-77 thriller.

Batangas City, the 2018 inaugural MPBL champion and owner of eight straight playoff stints, drew 14 points, 12 rebounds, three assists and two blocks from Ced Ablaza; 15 points, four assists, two steals and two blocks from Ino Comboy; and 14 points, four rebounds and two steals from Yambing.

Cebu surpassed its quarterfinal appearance in the 2019 MPBL Season and will aim higher when it tangles with the winner between top-seed Quezon Province and eighth-seed Zamboanga SiKat in another best-of-three South Division semifinal.

Meanwhile, Levi Hernandez drilled a dagger three with 26.3 seconds left as Zamboanga SiKat bested Quezon Province, 67-64, in the opener and forced a Game 3 decider in their quarterfinal playoffs.

Familiar with the venue's ring, Hernandez, the Batangas City Tanduay Athletics top gunner until last year, calmly let the ball fly from the corner to stun the Huskers, who led at 64-62 after scoring 10 points against another triple by Hernandez.

Quezon's Diego Dario cut the lane, but missed the layup with 5.5 seconds left and Zamboanga's John Mahari snared the rebound.

In the ensuing play, Brandon Wilson got fouled and made both charities for the final count with 3.3 ticks left.

Zamboanga homegrown Forthsky Padrigao posted 15 points, seven assists and four rebounds and was named the Best Player over Paeng Are, who had 14 points, six rebounds, three assists and three steals.