The Davao Occidental Tigers pounced on the absence of Greg Slaughter to subdue the Manila SV Batang Sampaloc Stars, 92-82, in the Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League Sixth Season on Monday at the San Andres Sports Complex in Manila.
Art dela Cruz barely missed a triple-double with 17 points, 11 rebounds and nine assists to lead the Tigers, the 2021 MPBL champion, to their 12th win against five losses in the round-robin elimination phase of the 29-team tournament.
Manila, which went unbeaten in eight games with Slaughter around, fell to 13-5 as the Stars solely missed the seven-footer’s intimidating presence and averages of 17.1 points and 10.8 rebounds.
The versatile Dela Cruz, who poured in 13 points in the first quarter, got ample support from Mark Tallo and Bonbon Custodio with 15 points each and Chris Lalata and Kenneth Ighalo with 11 points each.
Sans the ailing Slaughter, Rabeh Al-Hussaini manned the middle for the Stars and wound up with 18 points and six rebounds.
Manila also got 15 points, three rebounds and three assists from John Cantimbuhan and 13 points, five rebounds and four assists from Carl Bryan Cruz.
With Custodio and Tallo finding their mark, the Tigers erected a 72-58 spread late in the third quarter that they protected till the end.
Other games saw Parañaque nip Mindoro, 97-94, and Pasay trip Sarangani, 65-60.
Led by Warren Bonifacio with 20 points and seven rebounds, Pasay posted its fourth straight win and climbed to 11-7.
Other Voyagers who delivered were Axel Inigo with 10 points, eight assists and three rebounds, and Laurenz Victoria with nine points, seven rebounds and three assists.
Sarangani suffered its third straight defeat and tumbled to 4-14 despite the 15-point, five-rebound, two-assist, two-steal effort of Jaymark Mallari and the 10-point outputs of Benjie Jimenez and Larce Christian Sunga.
Parañaque banked on the 34-point explosion of Jielo Razon to rise to 11-7 and pulldown Mindoro to 5-13.