THE Pampanga Giant Lanterns found the Bacolod Tubo Slashers tough to crack and settled for a 100-91 victory on Monday that put them closer to the leaders of the MPBL 2025 Season at the Orion Sports Complex in Bataan.
Expecting a cruise, Pampanga instead had a shaky start, trailing by as far as 19-33 after the first quarter before tying the count at 45 at the break.
Gumaru catches fire
The Giant Lanterns then banked on Donald Gumaru and Larry Muyang in the second half to subdue the Tubo Slashers and raise their record to 7-1 in the round-robin elimination phase of the 30-team tournament.
Pampanga trails only Nueva Ecija (8-0) and San Juan (6-0) and is tied with Quezon Province and Abra in the chase for playoff seats.
Gumaru, a former Arellano University Chief, made 9 of 11 attempts, highlighted by six triples, and posted 24 points, including 18 in the second half, to clinch Best Player honors for the first time.
Muyang wound up with 24 points, including 16 in the second half, and 14 rebounds.
Pampanga top gun Archie Concepcion contributed 12 points, 7 assists and 4 boards, followed by John Lloyd Clemente with 9 points, 7 rebounds and 4 assists.
Canoy leads Tubo Slashers
Bacolod, composed mostly of homegrown players, fell to 1-3 as Aldave Canoy's 17-point, 4-rebound, 3-assist and 2-steal effort went for naught.
The Tubo Slashers also got 12 points each from Jan Gabriel Sobrevega, Jaycee Sam Adjei and PJ Intia, and 10 points from Richard Phillip Movida.
The MPBL goes to the Alonte Sports Arena on Tuesday, April 29, with games pitting Zamboanga against Pasig at 4 p.m., Davao against Caloocan at 6 p.m., and host Binan against Sarangani at 8 p.m.
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