General Santos City and Pampanga stretched their unbeaten runs with contrasting wins on Tuesday in the OKBet-Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League Fifth Season late Tuesday at the Imus Sports Complex in Cavite.
The GenSan Warriors scrambled past the Imus SV Squad, 68-64, to raise their record to 6-0 while the Pampanga Giant Lanterns leaned on Justine Baltazar to trounce Laguna Krah Asia, 109-85, and climb to 4-0 in the elimination round of the 29-team tournament.
Baltazar dominated the opposition with 26 points, 22 rebounds and five assists and sealed the outcome with a dunk, 91-60, early in the fourth quarter.
The 6-foot-8 Baltazar was supported by Archie Concepcion, Clifton Gania and Karl Sampang, who tallied 11 points each, Mat De Leon with 10 and Michael John Garcia with eight points, nine rebounds and five assists.
Laguna dropped to 2-6 despite the 30-point explosion of Kenneth Acibar, the 15-point effort of homegrown Paolo Pontejos and the 10-point output of Jerome Garcia.
While Pampanga did it the easy way, GenSan had to call on John Wilson and Kyt Jimenez to turn back Imus, which last led at 54-51 on a triple by veteran Jayjay Helterbrand.
Wilson poured 11 of his 18 points while Jimenez made all of his eight points, including the dagger three in the fourth quarter, to power the Warriors.
Jimenez also came through with nine rebounds, seven steals and three assists to complement the efforts of Wilson, who also posted eight rebounds and three assists; Mark Cruz with 14 points, six assists and four rebounds; and Larry Rodriguez with six points and 11 rebounds.
Imus, which tumbled to 2-4, got 18 points and eight rebounds from Mac Cardona, 13 from Helterbrand and 12 points plus 15 rebounds from Jaymar Gimpayan.
Quezon City Gaz N Go rallied behind Joseph Brutas and Andrei Duremdes to beat Valenzuela, 88-79, in the opener featuring struggling teams.
Brutas poured 16 of his 21 points and Duremdes eight of his 16 in the second half as Quezon City clawed back from a 34-60 hole and improved to 2-6,
The 6-foot-4 Duremdes, son of MPBL Commissioner Kenneth Duremdes, also grabbed nine rebounds, issued six assists, pulled off two steals and rejected a shot to earn best player honors.
Valenzuela, which suffered its seventh straight defeat, got 14 points from Carl Bryan Lacap, 12 from Stephen Steinl and 11 from Darell Manliguez.