MPBL SEMIS: QUEZON PUMMELS GENSAN; BINAN STYMIES BATANGAS

MANILA, Philippines — Quezon Province battered Gensan, 103-75, on Thursday and boosted its South Division crown-retention bid in the 747 Live Manny Pacquiao presents MPBL 2025 Season at the Quezon Convention Center in Lucena City.

The Quezon Huskers blitzed the Gensan Warriors, 10-0, and led by as far as 50-16 to surpass Binan's 72-67 victory over Batangas earlier and move a win away from the best-of-five division finals.

Judel Fuentes tallied 19 points, highlighted by 4-of-5 triples, to lead four other Huskers who delivered double figures.

Will Gozum sparked the Huskers' early breakaway by pouring in 10 of his 13 points in the first quarter. Ximone Sandagon contributed 13 points, six rebounds and two assists; LJ Gonzales 10 points, seven rebounds and seven assists; and Alfrancis Tamsi 10 points.

Diego Dario made all of his nine points from triples and Topeng Lagrama went 2 of 3 from afar as the Huskers pooled 17 triples from 34 attempts for an impressive 50% clip.

Gensan got 18 points from Joel Lee Yu, and 13 points, four rebounds and four steals from Mark Cruz, but no other Warrior contributed twin digits.

Quezon and Binan will try to forge a finals tussle on Monday when they battle Gensan and Batangas, respectively, at the Batangas Province Events Center.

While Quezon handily won, Binan needed to foil Batangas' last-ditch rally that saw the Tanduay Rum Masters cluster 11 points to knot the count at 60.

Kenny Roger Rocacurva, Marc Pingis and Carlo Lastimosa, however, struck back for Binan Tatak Gel, 66-62, with 2:56 to go.

Cedric Ablaza drove in to push Batangas within, 64-66, but Jaymar Gimpayan rose to the challenge and bunched 6 points to seal the outcome, 72-64, only 9.2 seconds left.

Rocacurva posted 18 points, six rebounds and two assists; Lastimosa 15 points, six rebounds and three assists; and Gimpayan eight points plus three assists.

Binan controlled the first half, leading by as many as 22-11 before Batangas rallied through Jong Baloria and Ablaza to cut the deficit, 33-30, at the buzzer.

Batangas seized control at 42-37 only to be stifled by Rocacurva, who poured in 11 points as Binan restored order, 52-42.

The Rum Masters got 15 points and four rebounds from Baloria; 14 points and five rebounds from Ablaza; 11 points, six rebounds and three assists from Levi Hernandez; and 10 points plus four rebounds from Joshua Torralba.

The North Division semifinals continue on Wednesday, with games pitting Caloocan against Abra at 6 p.m., and Pangasinan against San Juan at 8 p.m. at the Ynares Sports Arena in Pasig City.

Abra and Pangasinan won the series openers and would arrange a best-of-five division finals if they repeat over their opponents.

2025-11-07T04:31:24Z