The Pampanga Giant Lanterns survived a spirited fight back by the San Juan Knights-Go For Gold for an 86-82 Game 1 win in the MPBL Northern Division finals on Saturday night at the Bren Z. Guiao Convention Center in Pampanga.
John Bryle Bahio was named Player of the Game after finishing with a double-double of 14 points and 11 rebounds to go with four blocks and three assists as the Giant Lanterns took a 1-0 edge in the best-of-three series.
“In-execute lang namin ‘yun gameplan ni coach, na mas maging aggressive kami sa defense and sa offensive rebounding namin,” said Bahio, a former San Beda University Red Lions standout.
Justine Baltazar led the way with a double-double of 23 points and 20 rebounds, while Archie Concepcion and Jeric Encho Serrano contributed 11 and 10 markers, respectively, for Pampanga.
Leading by as much as 11 points, the visiting Knights threatened the Giant Lanterns with a huge fourth quarter run to cut the deficit to 78-83 on free throws by Orlan Wamar Jr., but Pampanga answered with a putback from Bahio for an 85-78 advantage.
San Juan still made its last run on free throws by Marwin Taywan and Wamar to cut the deficit to 82-85, and they still had a chance to tie the score, but Taywan missed on his three-point attempts in the end.
“Yung ineexpect kong tight defense ng San Juan pinakita nila,” said Giant Lanterns head coach Delta Pineda. “San Juan did their best talaga, grabe, tulad ng ine-expect ko na magiging close fight talaga.”
“Sa guards medyo lamang sila, kaya sabi ko sa mga players ko na i-take advantage namin ang height namin, nagbunga naman ‘yung mga offensive rebounding namin,” he added.
Taywan top-scored for San Juan with 20 points, Wamar added 14 markers, Michael Calisaan had a double-double of 12 points and 12 rebounds, and Adrian Nocum ended with 11 points.
The post Pampanga survives San Juan in Game 1 of MPBL North Division Finals first appeared on Fastbreak.
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