San Juan stops Manila run in MBT

MANILA, Philippines — San Juan used balanced scoring to stop erstwhile unbeaten Manila, 102-93, while Mandaluyong trounced MMDA and Parañaque in back-to-back games to pace their respective divisions after Week 3 of Metro Basketball Tournament (MBT) seniors tournament at the San Andres Sports Complex in Malate recently.

Joshua Emmanuel Montero led four other players in double figures for San Juan, which pulled away in the third quarter en route to its third win in four matches for the lead in the North Division in the tournament organized by the Metro Manila Sports Fest under the auspices of the Metro Manila Development Authority.

Montero scored eight of his game-high 21 points in the third quarter, allowing San Juan to pull away in the 14-team tournament which has “Mobile App ng Bayan” Barangay 143 as co-presentor, Synergy 88 as main sponsor and Spalding as official ball.

John Kenneth Zamora finished with 18 points, King Astrero added 13 points, Romeo Descarga had 11 points and Joshua Munsayac had 10 points to underscore the Whatta Whatta’ s balanced offensive.

Aljeric Ramirez had 20 points and Alladin Sultan had 19 for Manila, which dropped into a three-way tie with Marikina and Quezon City at 2-1 in the tournament backed by San Miguel Corp., World Balance and Higer Bus.

Caloocan, meanwhile, held off Valenzuela, 90-87, for a 1-2 card.

Valenzuela dropped to 0-3.

Earlier in the week, Mandaluyong made it three wins in a row by routing MMDA, 100-72, at the Navotas Sports Complex then defeating Parañaque, 94-83, at the Makati Coliseum two days later for the solo lead in the South Division of this 24-and-under MBT second conference supported by Excellent Noodles, Nature’s Spring Water, 1-Pacman party-list, Hopewell Sales Corp., Gatorade, Star Bread, Frabelle Foods, Regan Industrial Sales, Inc., Glitter.ph, Alcoplus, Primadonna and Archie’s Bespoke Bar & Grill.