San Juan won by 40 points, GenSan by 41, and Rizal by 36.
Indeed, it was a day of mismatches in the OKBet-MPBL (Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League) Fifth Season at the FilOil Flying V Arena in San Juan on Friday.
The San Juan Knights trounced the Bulacan Kuyas, 108-68, the GenSan Warriors clobbered the Bicol Volcanoes, 121-80, while the Rizal XentroMall Golden Coolers routed the Quezon City TODA Aksyon V Fresh squad, 102-66, in the round-robin elimination phase of the 29-team tournament.
Led by Orlan Wamar, San Juan zoomed beyond reach, 99-59, en route to its ninth straight victory and a 16-3 record.
Wamar, the smallest Knight at 5-foot-6, fired 24 points, all from triples, and added 6 assists, 5 rebounds and 4 steals.
Other Knights who delivered were Adrian Nocum with 17 points, Paulo Javillonar with 14 points, 6 rebounds, 6 assists and 4 steals, Jeff Javillonar with 14 points Joseph Ubalde with 12 points and Nikko Panganiban with 12 points plus 10 rebounds.
Bulacan tumbled to 6-13 as only Justine Guevarra could tally twin digits with 11 points.
John Wilson and Jervy Cruz shone again as GenSan notched its sixth straight win and climbed to 14-4.
Flashing the form that made him the MPBL Lakan Cup MVP, Wilson fired 18 points to go with 5 rebounds and 4 assists, while Cruz posted 12 points and 10 rebounds for GenSan, which also drew 16 points from Michael Alvarez and 10 points from Larry Rodriguez.
Rizal went out of sight, 81-36, before cruising to an 8-12 slate that kept it in the race for the playoff round.
