South Cotabato squeaked past Quezon City, 65-62, on Friday to rev up its drive in the MPBL (Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League) Sixth Season at the Calasiao Sports Complex in Pangasinan.
The South Cotabato Warriors crawled from a 24-39 hole to seize control in the fourth quarter and tally their eighth win against 3 losses in the round-robin elimination phase of the 29-team tournament.
Mark Cruz tallied 14 points, 5 rebounds, and 4 assists while Christian Fajarito submitted a double-double of 11 points plus 10 rebounds for the Warriors, who pulled down the Capitals to 4-6.
Quezon City got 15 points, 4 rebounds, and 4 assists from Rafael Are and 10 points from Josan Michael Nimes.
The Capitals had a chance to force overtime, but Are missed the first of two charities for a 62-63 count with 8.3 seconds to go.
Quezon City’s Enzo Josen then canned his two free throws for the final count.
Earlier, the Iloilo United Royals crawled out of a deep hole to subdue Imus Agimat VA Drones, 95-82, and improve to 3-8.
Trailing, 37-45, the United Royals rallied behind Shaquille Imperial and CJ Cansino to seize control, 64-59, after three quarters.
Imperial wound up with 20 points, 7 rebounds and 7 assists while Cansino finished with 16 points and 5 rebounds. Chris Doliguez also shone for Iloilo with 19 points and 6 rebounds and so did homegrown Mark Nonoy with 17 points, 5 assists and 4 rebounds.
Imus, which remained winless after 11 starts, got 26 points, 11 rebounds and 4 assists from Luis Gaveriel Tapenio, 12 points from Mikko Gimpayan and 11 points from Junar Punzalan.
The MPBL goes to the Bren Z. Guiao Convention Center in San Fernando, Pampanga on Saturday. The games pit Mindoro against Caloocan at 4 p.m., Negros against Quezon at 6 p.m. and Pampanga against Sarangani at 8 p.m.
