NHA repulses BFP, gains UNTV semis

MANILA, Philippines – National Housing Authority weathered Bureau of Fire Protection’s repeated rallies to hack out a 74-73 victory in their rubber match for the fourth and last semifinal berth in the fourth UNTV Cup at the Ynares Sports Arena in Pasig City over the weekend.

Antonio Lustestica Jr. fired 24 points and grabbed seven rebounds to lead the NHA Builders to victory and a spot in the Final Four of the annual event initiated by UNTV president and CEO Daniel Razon.

Marvin Mercado and Michael Taguiam backed him up with 20 and 10 points, respectively, as NHA arranged a semis showdown with top seed Armed Forces of the Philippines.

Clashing in the other semis pairing are No. 2 Metro Manila Development Authority and Philippine National Police.

The semifinals starts on Friday with AFP and MMDA needing only to beat their respective semis rivals once to arrange a best-of-three title series.

Both AFP and MMDA clinched outright semis berths by finishing 1-2 at the close of the two-phase elims.

BFP, which forced a do-or-die following a 93-81 win last week, tried to turn things around but ran out of time.