Batangas City won by 24 points, Bacolod by 20, and Quezon City 31.
Routs marked the OKbet-MPBL (Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League) 4th Season presented by Xtreme on Tuesday at the Batangas City Coliseum.
The unbeaten Batangas City Embassy Chill trounced the Mindoro Tams, 86-62, in the nightcap to tally their sixth straight victory and gain the solo lead in the single round-robin eliminations of the 22-team, 2-division tournament.
Bacolod Bingo Plus rebounded with a 77-57 thrashing of Laguna Krah Asia, while Quezon City MG Cars pounded the Makati City MNL Kingpins, 103-72, to complete the favorites’ romp.
Flaunting the form that made them the league’s inaugural champions in the 2018 Rajah Cup, the Batangas City Athletics sealed the outcome, 77-46, early in the fourth quarter and moved ahead of Nueva Ecija, Sarangani and Zamboanga Family’s Brand Sardines, all with 5-0 slates, in the standings.
Batangas Coach Cholo Villanueva shuffled his players at will, 13 of them managing to score with John Rey Villanueva and Juneric Baloria contributing 17 and 14 points, respectively.
Mindoro, which got 13 points from DarielBayla, tumbled to 1-6 in a tie with Makati.
Smarting from a 72-66 beating it absorbed from Batangas on June 18, Bacolod stormed beyond reach at 67-43 behind Jhan Mchale Nermal and Richard Albo, who wound up with 12 points each, and homegrown Jeramer Cabanag, who chipped in 11.
Laguna fell to 1-4 as only Sean Laban and Virgilio Serios found their mark with 12 and 11 points, respectively.
Quezon City clustered 18 points to pull away at 64-40 and notch its first triumph after back-to-back setbacks.
Christopher Menguez presided over Quezon City’s balanced offense with 17 points plus 9 rebounds, followed by Kentoy Segura with 16 points, Kim Cinco with 15 points and Jeric Nacpil with 12 points plus 10 rebounds.
Composed mostly of homegrown players, Makati got 19 points from Larry Arpia, 15 from Kobe Bryant Pableo, and 14 from Kenz Diokno.
The MPBL visits Orion, Bataan on July 2 with a triple-bill pitting GenSan against Quezon City at 5 p.m., Nueva Ecija against Sarangani at 7 p.m. and Valenzuela against Bataan at 9 p.m.
