Zamboanga makes last ditch push to bring Lakan season playoffs home

The desire to bring the Chooks to Go MPBL Lakan Season playoffs to its home court fueled Zamboanga to its biggest victory in history last Friday night at Cuneta Astrodome.

With Alvin Pasaol and Leonard Santillan hitting the biggest shots, Zamboanga completed a stunning reversal over defending champion San Juan, 69-64, to boost its hopes of home court advantage in the playoffs at Cuneta Astrodome.

Santillan finished with 13 points to match the output of Pasaol, whose putback with 37.2 seconds remaining helped put away the Knights, who lost for only the fourth time in 28 games this season.

“Our motivation is to bring the playoffs to Zamboanga,” said Santillan, a former De La Salle standout.

“Our fans in Zamboanga were not able to experience the playoffs last season since we did not have a good seeding, but we’re hoping we can do it this year.”

The win allowed Zamboanga to tie Iloilo for the fourth and fifth spots with 18-11 records in the South division. Only the Top 4 in each division can host a home game in the first round of the playoffs.

Zamboanga still needs another upset in their last game of the elimination round against North division No. 2 Manila, while hoping that Iloilo loses to Bacoor in its final regular season game. The Royals will claim home court advantage should both teams end up with identical records, having beaten Zamboanga, 60-58, last Jan. 18.

Basilan-Jumbo Plastic firmed up its hold of the No. 3 spot in the South division after dumping Pasay, 74-59, while Pasig-Sta. Lucia whipped Valenzuela-Carga Backload Solutions, 90-72, to secure No. 7 seed in the South division.