By JEREMIAH SEVILLA
The Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League (MPBL) decided to postpone the Lakan Season South Division Finals rubber match between Davao Occidental and Basilan after one of the latter’s players tested positive for COVID-19.
MPBL Commissioner Kenneth Duremdes confirmed the development to Bulletin-Tempo on Wednesday, a few hours before the tipoff of the Tigers-Steel clash at 4 p.m. at the Subic bubble.
The win-or-go home North Division Finals pitting reigning champion San Juan against Makati will push through.
Duremdes said that all the Basilan players and staff will undergo a seven-day quarantine extension before conducting another swab test.
“‘Pag negative silang lahat, papayagan na namin sila pumasok sa bubble (If they test negative, we will allow them to enter the bubble),” he added.
The 47-year-old league chief also said that those who tested negative from the first swab test have already entered the self-contained zone.
The winner between the Knights and the Super Crunch will advance to the best-of-five National Finals which is supposed to start on Friday, March 12, but may need to be rescheduled due to the positive case incident.
After fulfilling the requirements from the IATF, DOH and SBMA, the MPBL went to the Subic bubble to close out the Lakan Season which was stalled by the pandemic last year.
