Skippers blast Bombers, move to joint second

MANILA, Philippines — Marinerong Pilipino sustained its hot charge and demolished Jose Rizal University, 84-62, to move to joint second with Akari-Adamson in the PBA D-League Aspirants’ Cup at the JCSGO Gym in Cubao yesterday.

The Skippers scored the first 10 points and never let up on their way to the 22-point romp for their fifth straight victory and sixth overall against two losses.

“It’s just numbers. We haven’t achieved anything yet,” said Marinero coach Koy Banal.

Abu Tratter came away with 16 points, Renzo Subido and Gab Banal piled up 11 markers apiece while Alvin Pasaol turned in nine markers and grabbed 11 rebounds for Marinerong Pilipino, which dominated the boards, 54-39.

John Grospe poured in 16 points while Jonathan Mendoza and Aaron de Guzman each scored 14 for the Heavy Bombers, who fell to their seventh straight defeat for a 1-7 card with Batangas-Emilio Aguinaldo College.

Earlier, Bong Quinto hit two pressure-packed charities in the last 8.2 seconds as Wangs Basketball-Letran survived a near meltdown to edge Go for Gold, 91-88, and remain at fourth at 5-2.

The Couriers nearly blew a 15-point lead in the last period but leaned on their defense to frustrate the Scratchers and notch their third straight victory.

Go for Gold actually had a chance to send the match into overtime but Justin Gutang flubbed his attempt at the buzzer.

The Scratchers dropped to 4-5.

“We wasted a lot of crucial opportunities. We had two turnovers in our inbound play. Luckily, our defense prevailed,” said Wangs Basketball-Letran coach Jeff Napa.

Quinto, Larry Muyang, Christian Fajarito, Jerrick Balanza, Bonbon Batiller, Alex Mandreza and JP Calvo took over for the Couriers and combined in a 17-2 run bridging the last two quarters to give Wangs a huge 79-64 bulge with 6:05 remaining in the contest.