GEN. Santos City repelled Zamboanga Family’s Brand Sardines’ fightback to win 74-71 last Monday in the OKBet-MPBL (Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League) Fifth Season Visayas Invasion at the City of Passi Arena in Iloilo.
The Iloilo United Royals followed suit with an equally shaky 70-66 victory over the Manila Stars in the nightcap.
Trailing 25-45 early in the fourth quarter, Zamboanga threatened at 69-71 behind Chris Dumapig’s six straight points with 47 seconds left.
Kyt Jimenez, however, scored underneath and landed hard following an unsportsmanlike foul from Dumapig with 30 seconds left to give GenSan the breather en route to its 16th win against 5 losses in the round-robin elimination phase of the 29-team tournament.
Zamboanga’s JV Marcelino drove in with 13 seconds left, while GenSan’s John Wilson split his two charities for the final count that pulled down the Zamboanguenos’ record to 15-6.
Homegrown Cris Masaglang tallied 14 points, 4 assists, 4 rebounds and 2 steals to earn best player honors for GenSan, which drew 12 points and 9 rebounds from Jervy Cruz, 11 points, 5 assists and 3 rebounds from Christian Fajarito and 10 points plus 8 rebounds from Larry Rodriguez.
