Quezon Province squeaked past Imus, 77-75, while GenSan trounced Pasay, 89-55, in the OKBet-Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League Fifth Season late Saturday at the Quezon Convention Center in Lucena City.
Leaning on their three-point shooting, the Huskers climbed out of a 19-point hole and seized control, but needed to fend off the Imus SV Squad’s final assault to notch their 12th win in 17 games of the single round-robin elimination phase of the 29-team tournament.
In contrast, the GenSan Warriors led from the start and pulled away at 52-13 en route to a 12-5 record.
It was the Huskers, however, who took the spotlight as they recovered from a 34-43 halftime deficit with a string of four triples, 46-43, and stayed ahead from there.
Robin Rono spearheaded Quezon’s guards who stepped up with 15 points, making 5-of-6 three-pointers, four rebounds, two assists and two steals to earn best player honors over fellow Husker Alvin Abundo.
Making 4-of-8 triple tries, a jumper and a free throw, Abundo also tallied 15 points to go with nine assists, five rebounds and two steals.
Other Huskers who delivered were Al Francis Tamsi with 14 points, spiked by four triples, and JK Casino with 13 points, including three triples, plus three assists.
They compensated for the absence of injured top gunner Raffy Verano and key players Jeric Teng, Mark Pangilinan, Prince Rivero and Will Gozum.
The Huskers built a 73-62 spread with 3:21 to go, but Jimboy Estrada poured in 10 points and Jaymar Gimpayan added a trey against a triple by Rono to threaten at 75-76.
Abundo split his two charities to peg the final count as Gimpayan missed a potential game-extender just before the final buzzer.
