General Santos City and Pampanga stretched their unbeaten runs with contrasting fashions on Tuesday in the OKBet-MPBL (Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League) Fifth Season 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. Quezon City Gaz N Go rallied behind Joseph Brutas and Andrei Duremdes to beat Valenzuela, 88-79, in the opener featuring struggling teams.
Baltazar dominated the opposition with 26 points, 22 rebounds and 5 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 8 points, 9 rebounds and 5 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 9 rebounds, 7 steals and 3 assists to complement the efforts of Wilson, who also posted 8 rebounds and 3 assists; Mark cruz with 14 points, 6 assists and 4 rebounds; and Larry Rodriguez with 6 points and 11 rebounds.
