Mitchell, Cruz seal Manila victory
Filipino-American DJ Mitchell drilled in a deep corner triple while Carl Bryan Cruz canned two charities in the last 39 seconds to lift Manila past debuting Caloocan, 69-66, in the Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League Sixth Season elimination round late Tuesday at the San Andres Sports Complex.
In other matches, Davao Occidental nipped Bacolod, 72-71, while Quezon Province tripped Pangasinan, 72-68.
Manila SV Batang Sampaloc trailed most of the way, the last at 64-66 with 39 seconds left when Caloocan Batang Kankaloo bunched six points.
A pressure-free Mitchell, however, responded to the challenge with a go-ahead jumper before Cruz sealed Manila’s third win in four games with the free throws only 1.6 seconds to go.
Cruz tallied 18 points, six rebounds, two assists and two blocks to earn Best Player honors over Mitchell, formerly of US National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I school Hartford who posted 12 points, three rebounds and two steals.
Other major contributors for Manila coach Gabby Severino were Enzo Navarro with 11 points, five assists, four rebounds plus one steal, and Pao Javelona with 10 points, six assists and two rebounds.
Caloocan was hounded by poor free throw shooting, making only 6-of-15 tries as Antonio Bonsubre flubbed all his five attempts, including two in the dying seconds.
In contrast, Manila made 11-of-16 charities and went 12-of-30 from rainbow territory, surpassing its total of 11 two-pointers.
The Batang Kankaloo got 12 points and three rebounds from veteran Gabby Espinas, 11 points, six rebounds and three steals from Jeramer Cabanag, and 10 points plus five rebounds from Reil Cervantes.
Bonsubre finished with only four points but had 10 rebounds.
Terence Tumalip poured eight of his 11 points in the fourth quarter to power Davao to an even 1-1 slate. His explosion complemented the 12-point, eight-rebound effort of Kelly Nabong and the 12-point, seven-rebound output of Arthur dela Cruz.
Bacolod tumbled to 1-3 despite drawing 11 points each Tricky Dyn Peromingan, Danny Marilao and homegrown Miles Canal, and 10 points from Jacob Galicia.
Meanwhile, the league suspended Germy Mahinay of Negros indefinitely following the flagrant foul he committed against Joey Barcuma of Zamboanga City in their encounter in Biñan City last Monday.