Marikina weathered Quezon Province’s final assault to prevail, 73-70, on Tuesday and prove it deserves to be in the MPBL (Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League) Fifth Season playoffs at the Marikina Sports Center.
The Marikina Shoemasters wasted a 25-point spread, allowed the Quezon Huskers to knot the count at 70, before getting the lift from homegrowns RV Berjay and Felipe Chavez to finish the round-robin elimination round with a 16-12 record, good for the eighth and last playoff slot in the North division.
Berjay, a former Batang Gilas from the Ateneo Blue Eagles scored on a layup with 25 seconds left while Chavez split his charities with 6 seconds to go for the marginal points that deprived the Huskers of the homegrown edge in the playoffs starting on Friday, October 6.
Quezon tumbled to 19-9 and skidded to fifth place behind Zamboanga Family’s Brand Sardines, which finished with a 20-8 slate in the South division.
As a result, instead of hosting the Zamboanguenos on Oct. 14, the Huskers will have to fly over to Zamboanga City for Game 2 of their best-of-three quarterfinal series.
Way behind, 34-59, late in the third quarter, the Huskers closed the gap, 60-66, behind a 10-point cluster spiked by an Alfrancis Tamsi triple and then bunched eight points, capped by another Tamsi triple, to turn the sleeper into a thriller, 70-70, with 29 seconds remaining.
However, the Huskers misfired after that, including a buzzer-beater triple by Mon Abundo that could have forced overtime.
The 6-foot-4 Berjay posted 14 points, 5 rebounds and 3 assists to earn best player honors at the expense of teammates Joe Gomez De Liano with 10 points, 8 rebounds and 4 assists, and Chavez with 10 points, 8 rebounds and 2 assists.
Lucena City icon Topeng Lagrama finished with 13 points, 4 steals, 4 assists and 3 rebounds for the Huskers, who got 13 points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 steals from Tamsi.
Earlier, the Bacoor City Strikers trounced the also-ran Bataan Risers, 93-65, to end up with a South division best 23-5 slate.
Mark Montuano led 13 Bacoor players who contributed with 12 points, followed by Jhan McHale Nermal with 11 and Alwyn Alday with 10.
The Strikers, who led the Risers (13-15) by as many as 29 points, will have the homecourt edge in their quarterfinal series opener against the Iloilo United Royals on Oct. 7.