HARBOUR Centre star Jason Castro lays it up off San Mig Coffee’s Claifford Arao in Thursday’s game at The Arena in San Juan City. The spitfirish Castro scored 12 points on top of 7 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 blocks in a solid all-around game for the streaking Batang Pier. RYAN LIM
W L Harbour 11 0 Hapee 8 4 Burger King 7 6 SMig Coffee 5 6 Pharex 5 6 Noosa Shoes 5 7 Toyota Otis 5 7 Bacchus 4 8 Nokia-RP 0 6
GAMES SATURDAY (The Arena, San Juan) 12 noon—Nokia RP Youth vs Noosa 2 p.m.—Pharex vs Bacchus 4 p.m.—Burger King vs San Mig
MANILA, Philippines—Harbour Centre continued to flash overpowering form as the four-time PBL champion romped to an 86-71 win over San Mig Coffee Thursday and stretched its unbeaten run to 11 games in the Lipovitan Amino Sports Cup at The Arena in San Juan City.
Batang Pier, already assured of an outright semifinal berth, opened the game with an 11-0 spurt and had it all wrapped up with a 41-19 lead at halftime.
TY Tang led Batang Pier’s balanced offense with 14 points, while two-time MVP Jason Castro collected 12 markers, seven rebounds, three assists and two blocks.
Earlier, Burger King pulled off a key defensive stop against Noosa Shoes in the dwindling seconds to preserve a 67-64 victory and sustain its bid for the remaining outright semifinal berth.
The Shoe Stars had a chance to forge an extra period after a free-throw miss by Marcy Arellano. But the star Whopper quickly atoned for the miss by stealing the ball from Kelvin dela Peña in the Shoe Stars’ final possession.
“It was a case of overconfidence,” said coach Allan Gregorio after the Whoppers improved to 7-6 and closed in on the 8-4 record of the second-running Hapee Toothpaste.
“We have to check our killer instinct. We must have it from start to finish.”
The Whoppers weathered the late scoring charge of Noy Javier, who drilled 15 of his 25 points in the final quarter that narrowed the 25-point margin, 54-29, to only 65-60.
Four more free throws by John Wilson trimmed the deficit to just a bucket, 66-64, with 7.8 ticks remaining.
Arellano’s crucial steal from midcourt came after the University of the East standout split his charities for a 67-64 margin with just six seconds left in the close match.
Lawrence Bonus topscored for the Whoppers with 16 points, four rebounds and a pair of blocks, while Mike Bravo added 15.
San Mig Coffee dropped to 5-6, while Noosa Shoes, which fell to 5-7, must win its remaining games to keep its quarterfinal bid alive.
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