THE Pangasinan Heatwaves sustained their recovery with a 66-59 victory over the Muntinlupa Cagers on Monday in the MPBL 2025 Season at the Paco Arena in Manila.
Pangasinan pulled away, 64-46, midway through the fourth quarter and cruised to its third straight win for an 8-4 slate in the round-robin elimination phase of the 30-team tournament.
Jorey Napoles led Pangasinan's assault with 14 points and 8 rebounds, followed by Harvey Pagsanjan with 13 points, 6 rebounds, 2 assists and 2 steals, and Ian Melencio with 10 points plus 2 rebounds.
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With Lervin Flores snagging 10 rebounds, Pangasinan ruled the boards, 52-43, and parlayed this into 42 points in the paint against only 20 for Muntinlupa.
The Cagers saw their four-game run broken and dropped to 10-3 despite Dom Matillano's 13 points, 9 rebounds and 3 assists, and Mart James Barrera's 13 points and 2 steals.
Pasig crawled out of a deep hole to trip Quezon City Galeries Taipan, 85-79, in the nightcap.
Trailing 65-75 with 4 minutes and 32 seconds left, Pasig countered behind veteran Chito Jaime and Warlo James Batac to knot the count at 77.
Jerome Santos scored on a layup to put Quezon City back on top, 79-77, but Robbie Manalang drilled in a triple and Jaime came up with two straight free throw splits, stole the inbound, and canned a buzzer-beating triple to hand Pasig a 5-6 card
Quezon City greeted the fourth quarter with a 14-point spurt, capped by Ry Ajier De La Rosa's back-to-back triples, and pulled away, 71-57, only to crumble and tumble to 3-11.
Jaime wound up with 19 points, 8 rebounds and 3 assists, Batac with 17 points, 7 assists, 4 steals and 2 rebounds, Jerome Garcia 11 points and 2 rebounds, Manalang 10 points, 4 assists and 2 rebounds, and Rocky Acidre 10 points.
The Taipans got 17 points, 3 rebounds and 2 assists from Nino Ibanez, 13 points and 4 rebounds from De La Rosa, and 11 points, 5 assists, 3 rebounds and 2 steals from Vincent Cunanan.
Valenzuela weaves magic
Valenzuela City Magic leaned on Jan Formento's clutch hits to nip Bacolod, 86-82, in the opener of the tripleheader.
Formento canned two free throws with 46.7 seconds left and drilled in a jumper with 5 seconds to go as Valenzuela snapped a six-game slide and improved to 4-10.
The crack guard out of St. Clare College posted 24 points, spiked by 4 triples, 3 rebounds and 4 assists to earn best player honors over Kyle Drexler Neypes with 14 points, 7 rebounds and 3 assists and Kobe Monje with 10 points, 9 rebounds and 3 assists.
Other Magic who shone were JR Alabanza with 9 points, 13 rebounds, 2 assists and 2 blocks, and Jonathan Ralf Gesalem with 9 points, all from triples.
The Bacolod Tubo Slashers absorbed their fifth straight defeat and dropped to 2-10 despite Chester Saldua's 20-point, 6-assist effort, Jaycee Sam Adjei's 17 points, 9 rebounds and 5 assists, and homegrown Miles Canal's 10 points plus 9 rebounds.
Outrebounded by the Magic, 51-42, the Tubo Slashers were further hampered by their inability to convert charities, making only 9 of 23 tries. In contrast, the Magic made 19 of 24 freebies.
The MPBL goes to the Alonte Sports Arena on Tuesday with games pitting Bulacan against Davao at 4 p.m., Rizal against Gensan at 6 p.m., and host Binan against Paranaque at 8 p.m.
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