San Juan Go for Gold set a new scoring record as it demolished Mindoro, 146-64, in the OKbet-MPBL (Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League) 4th Season, presented by Xtreme at the Nueva Ecija Coliseum in Palayan City on Tuesday.
Powered by Orlan Wamar and Judel Ric Fuentes, the San Juan Knights set a new league-record 82-point winning margin en route to a 10-6 slate.
Wamar drilled in 12 triples en route to a career-high 36 points, including a record 21 in the third quarter, issued 11 assists and snared 9 rebounds to earn best player honors. Fuentes also finished with a personal best 34 points, including 10 triples, 13 rebounds and 6 assists.
So dominant was SJ’s offense, that the combined scores of Wamar and Fuentes would be enough to tame Mindoro, which got mired at 1-15 in a tie with Makati.
Another Knight, Marwin Taywan accounted for 10 points and an MPBL record 20 assists.Meanwhile, Nueva Ecija stretched its unbeaten run, while Laguna won back-to-back for the first time.
The Nueva Ecija Rice Vanguards drew 12 points each from John Bryon Villarias, Michael Juico and Will McAloney to dump Manila, 85-58, and climb to 17-0, just four wins away from sweeping the single-round elimination phase of the 22-team tournament.
A +20 favorite entering the game, the Rice Vanguards did even better and afforded Coach Jerson Cabiltes the luxury of using all of his 15 players in the roster.
Laguna Krah Asia banked on Paolo Pontejos to edge Imus Bandera, 70-68, Pontejos scored Laguna’s last 6 points as the Heroes improved to 3-12 while pulling down Imus to 4-11. Potenjos wound up with 12 points, ahead of Raymond Matias’ 10 but behind Virgilio Serios’ 17 points and 10 rebounds.
Imus got 11 points from Garciano Puerto and 10 each from Adven Jess Diputado and Leo Najorda, who snared 11 rebounds.
The MPBL goes to the Ynares Center in Pasig on Friday with a triple-bill pitting Bataan against Batangas at 5 p.m., Imus against sarangai at 7 p.m. and Zamboanga against Rizal at 9 p.m.