THE Manila Stars overpowered Bacolod Master’s Sardines and tallied a coast-to-coast 87-70 victory Friday in the Chooks-to-Go/MPBL Lakan Season at San Andres Sports Complex.
Shining both in offense and defense, the Stars pulled away at 85-62 before cruising to their 20th win against four losses right behind the pacesetting San Juan Knights (20-3) in the North division of the 31-team league.
Carlo Lastimosa led the Stars with 22 points, 3 assists and 5 steals, followed by Mark Dyke with 17 points and 10 rebounds, Aris Dionisio with 17 points and Marvin Lee with 12.
Despite its rejuvenated roster, Bacolod proved no match for Frontrow-supported Manila, which pounced on the 22 turnovers committed by the Bacolodnons apart from having more steals, 14-7, five by Lastimosa.
Bacolod, which virtually bowed out of playoffs contention with an 8-16 slate got 17 points from high-leaper Yankee Haruma, 11 points and 10 rebounds from Ben Adamos, and 11 points from Pao Javelona.
Muntinlupa stunned Iloilo United, 96-92, while Valenzuela-Carga Backload Solutions subdued Sarangani, 89-84, in earlier games.
Clamping down on Iloilo’s gunners, the also-ran Cagers held the Royals without a field goal for over seven minutes in the fourth quarter to post their sixth win in 25 starts. The Royals saw their six-game win run broken and fell to 15-9 in the South division.
Biboy Enguio delivered for Muntinlupa with 26 points and 10 rebounds and got support from Edsel Mag-isa with 14 points, and JG Ylagan and Paeng Regubio with 11 each.
Iloilo drew 21 points from Aaron Jeruta and 18 from Alfrancis Tamsi, all from triples.
Former pro Val Acuna completed a four-point play to pull Valenzuela out of trouble, 86-77, and improve to 10-15. Sarangani slipped to 1-23.
The MPBL visits Southwestern University’s Aznar Coliseum on Saturday with Makati battling Bacoor at 7 p.m. and General Santos tangling with Cebu at 9 p.m.
