MARK Cruz stood tall as South Cotabato rallied to beat Binan Tatak Gel, 85-82, on Thursday in Game 1 of their South Division quarterfinal playoffs of the sixth season of the MPBL at the Batangas City Coliseum.
The 5-foot-6 Cruz, the smallest guy on the floor, went perfect from the field and pumped in 20 of his 24 points in the second half, highlighted by an eight-point cluster in the fourth quarter, to push the Warriors past Laguna, who led for over 36 minutes only to crumble in the wake of the Warriors' spirited comeback from a 41-53 deficit.
Binan was still ahead, 82-78, with a minute and 35 seconds left, only to be held scoreless the rest of the way, while South Cotabato strung eight points on a triple by Cruz, an inside thrust by Jammer Jamito and split charities from Felix Apreku and Marwin Dionisio.
Cruz was later named the best player of the game over Jamito who tallied a solid 16 points, five boards and three blocks.
Val Acuna was the other Warrior in twin digits with 14.
Binan got 24 points, six rebounds and four steals from Kenny Roger Rocacurva, alongside 13 and 11 from Pamboy Raymundo and Carlo Lastimosa respectively.
It was the same sad story for Binan, which also suffered an 81-82 meltdown to South Cotabato in the round-robin elimination phase of the two-division, 29-team tournament.
The MPBL Playoffs resume on Saturday at the San Andres Sports Complex with games pitting San Juan against Rizal at 6 p.m. and Caloocan against Manila at 8 p.m.
The San Juan Knights and the Caloocan Batang Kankaloo are gunning for their second win that would put them in the semifinal round.
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