General Santos City—Drawing inspiration from the loud crowd of over 10,000 and firepower from Leomer Losentes, the Warriors repulsed the Pampanga Lanterns, 72-64, to overshadow the Bataan Risers’ victory earlier in the Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League Datu Cup doubleheader at Lagao Gymnasium here.
The Risers were forced to an overtime before downing the Makati Skyscrapers, 72-70, employing tight defense while coming through with clutch hits, the Warriors surged ahead, 50-39, then quelled the Lanterns’ repeated rallies.
The 5-foot-11 Losentes, a former star of St. Francis of Assisi who became a byword in Mindanao and Visayas cage leagues, poured 19 of his game-high 21 points in the second half to power the Warriors to their second straight win and a 3-4 record.
Feeling the absence of Michael Juico, the MPBL’s leading scorer who got injured in the second quarter and never returned, the Lanterns dropped to 3-5.
With another gunner, Cristopher Masaglang, out of commission due to bone fracture, the 33-year-old Losentes took charge and with some help from John Orbeta, who chipped in 11 points, bailed the Warriors out of trouble in the game serving as part of the GenSan Tuna Festival running up to Sept. 5.
League founder Sen. Manny Pacquiao, who initiated the event in this city ten years ago as the Manny Pacquiao Basketball League, graced the MPBL Mindanao Invasion together with GenSan Mayor Ronnel Rivera and other city and Soccsksargen officials.
Pamboy Raymundo’s jumper with 1:28 seconds left in extension turned out to be the marginal basket for Bataan, which notched its sixth straight win after dropping its inaugural game and gained a share of top spot with the Manila Stars in the North division.
The Skyscrapers, who also yielded to the Imus Bandera (79-76) on August 9, slipped to 4-3.
Veteran Gary David topscored for the Risers with 15 points, followed by John Villarias and Jeepy Faundo with 14 points each.
John Rey Villanueva scored 15 points for the Skyscrapers who also got 14 from Roy Cayanan, 13 from James Mangahas 13, and 10 from Jeckster Apinan.
The crowd, the biggest for a local sports event in memory, applauded when Bataan’s Garry David canned back-to-back triples, J-Jay Alejandro followed suit, and when Faundo did a two-handed dunk.
MPBL’s top brass, commissioner Kenneth Duremdes, assistant commissioner Satar Macantal, operations head Zaldy Realubit, team coordinator Emmer Oreta, and security chief Rudy Distrito were all present to lend support to Pacquiao, who beamed with pride for the success of the event.