CALOOCAN leaned on Joel Lee Yu's back-to-back layups to frustrate Batangas, 73-72, on Wednesday at the Villar Coliseum in Las Pinas and continue its climb up the MPBL (Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League) Sixth Season leaderboard.
The Rum Masters had a chance to reverse the outcome, but Jeckster Apinan missed a floater with 2.6 seconds left, allowing the Batang Kankaloo to escape with their seventh win against four losses in the round-robin eliminations of the 29-team tournament.
With Joseph Manlangit at the helm, Caloocan was already ahead by as many as 44-32 and still at 67-63 midway through the fourth quarter before Batangas regained the lead, 72-71, on a triple by Juneric Baloria with a minute and a half to go.
Not long after, however, Yu's two straight slash-and-scores turned out to be the daggers to the hearts of the Rum Masters who dropped to 10-4.
Manlangit finished with 15 points, eight rebounds, and five assists, followed by Joco Tayongtong with 13 points, four rebounds, and four assists and Paul Sanga with 11 points.
Batangas, on the other hand, got 16 points from Kris Porter and 12 points, 14 rebounds, plus four assists from Cedric Ablaza.
Warriors hunt down Tamaraws
Earlier, South Cotabato subdued Mindoro, 107-91, to climb to tie Batangas at 10-4.
Enzo Joson paced the Warriors with 22 points, eight assists, and six rebounds, followed by Jervy Cruz with 19 points and six rebounds and Kyle Tolentino with 12 points and six rebounds.
The Tamaraws slid to 4-10 despite the 21-point, 7-assist, 6-rebound effort of Paul Desiderio and the 21-point, 6-rebound output of Ken Bono.
The MPBL goes to the Paco Arena on Thursday with a triple-bill pitting Quezon against Sarangani at 4 p.m., Imus against Bicolandia at 6 p.m., and Zamboanga against Rizal at 8 p.m.
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