The Basilan Starhorse Portmasters battered the Quezon City Galeries Taipans for 35 minutes before cruising to a 94-81 victory on Saturday and jumping to the fourth spot in the South Division of Manny Pacquiao Presents MPBL 2025 Season at the Ynares Center Montalban in Rizal Province.
Basilan surged ahead, 27-16, after the first quarter and was never threatened en route to its eighth straight win in the round-robin elimination phase, finishing with an 18-11 record in the South Division of the 30-team tournament.
Quezon Province took the top spot with a 25-4 slate, followed by Batangas City (20-9) and Rizal Xentromall (18-10).
Meanwhile, the Nueva Ecija Rice Vanguards thwarted the Rizal Xentromall Golden Coolers, 79-67, to improve their record to 27-2, but settled for No. 2 in the North Division behind the Abra Weavers Solid North (27-1).
The Caloocan Batang Kankaloo eliminated the Sarangani Grippers, 93-79, in the second game and kept the seventh slot in the North with their 20-8 slate.
Backed by Sumisip Mayor Julz Hataman and Jackson Chua of Red Dynasty Restaurant, the Portmasters caught up with the Gensan Warriors, and with their 75-72 victory in their regular season encounter, relegated the Warriors to No. 5. Thus, the Bernard Yang-managed Basilan will have the homecourt advantage in their best-of-three playoff tussle.
Sherwin Concepcion led Basilan with 16 points, 5 rebounds and 3 assists, followed by Jervy Cruz with 15 points plus 12 rebounds, Adi Santos with 13 points plus 4 assists, Arwind Santos with 12 points, 6 rebounds and 3 steals, and Alex Cabagnot with 11 points, 6 assists and 5 rebounds.
Cruz converted 4 of 5 tries from beyond the arc, Cabagnot 3 of 5, Renzo Navarro 2 of 4, John Mahari 1 of 1, Santos 1 of 1, and Concepcion 4 of 9 to pummel the Taipans, who canned 8 of 37 triple tries.
Also-ran Quezon City tumbled to 7-21 despite Vincent Cunanan’s 14 points, Jeff Javillonar’s 10 points and 15 rebounds, and 12 points each from Jayson Puray, Nino Ibanez and John Karlo Casino.
