San Juan takes Game 2 over Davao, ties MPBL finals series

Photo courtesy of MPBL.

MANILA, Philippines—It’s all knotted up one apiece after San Juan-Go for Gold held off Davao Occidental-Cocolife Tigers, 70-65, in Game 2 of the Chooks-to-Go Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League Lakan National Finals Thursday at Subic Bay Gymnasium.

Trailing 50-43 midway through the third, the Knights went on a blitzkrieg going on a 20-5 run across the two final quarters with John Wilson’s three-pointer capping off the charge with 4:14 to play for San Juan’s 63-55 lead.

Mike Ayonayon scored nine points in that spirited run.

“We treated this game as a knockout game because if we go down 0-2 then it’d be hard for us to make a comeback because the games are non-stop,” said Knights head coach Randy Alcantara in Filipino of the five-game series.

Wilson finished with 17 points for the defending champions while Ayonayon had 15 points, nine assists, two steals, and two blocks.

Emman Calo had a game-high 26 points with five rebounds and four steals to lead the Tigers.

Game 3 is on Saturday.