Navarro waxes hot from downtown as Manila rips Iloilo in MPBL

MANILA, Philippines – Manila showed it wasn't just all-height on Wednesday, banking on crack point guard Enzo Navarro to trounce Iloilo, 98-74, and sustain its climb in the 6th MPBL (Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League) Season at the Villar Coliseum in Las Pinas.

The 5-foot-8 Navarro wound up with 22 points, spiked by seven triples on 10 tries, nine assists, seven rebounds and two steals to earn Best Player honors over 7-footer Greg Slaughter, 6-foot-7 Rabeh Al-Hussaini and 6-4 Carl Bryan Cruz and anchor the Manila SV Batang Sampaloc Stars to their fifth straight win and a 10-4 record in the round-robin elimination round of the 29-team tournament.

Cruz posted 14 points, 12 rebounds and five assists, while Slaughter finished with 12 points, 11 rebounds and three assists. Hussaini contributed 14 points and eight rebounds for Manila, which ruled the boards, 58-42, and led by as far as 89-61.

The Iloilo United Royals saw their three-win run broken and tumbled to 5-8.

Iloilo got 18 points and four rebounds from Gwyne Capacio, 14 points plus five rebounds from Shaquille Imperial, and 12 points, six rebounds and two assists from Clint Doliguez.

In earlier games, Caloocan leaned on Joel Lee Yu's back-to-back layups to stun Batangas, 73-72, while South Cotabato subdued Mindoro, 107-91.

The Batangas City Tanduay Rum Masters had a chance to reverse the outcome, but Jeckster Apinan missed a floater jumper with 2.6 left, allowing the Caloocan Batang Kankaloo to escape with their seventh win against four losses.

With Joseph Manlangit at the helm, Caloocan led by as many as 44-32 and by 67-63 midway through the fourth quarter. Manlangit finished with 15 points, eight rebounds and five assists; followed by Joco Tayongtong with 13 points, four rebounds and four assists; and Paul Sanga with 11 points.

Batangas regained the lead, 72-71, on a triple by Juneric Baloria with 1:27 to go, but Yu handed the Rum Masters their fourth loss in 14 starts with his second drive.

The Rum Masters got 16 points from Kris Porter and 12 points, 14 rebounds, plus four assists from Cedric Ablaza.

Unlike Caloocan, South Cotabato had an easier time against Mindoro as Enzo Joson shone.

Joson paced the Warriors with 22 points, eight assists and six rebounds; followed by Jervy Cruz with 19 points and six rebounds; and Kyle Tolentino with 12 points and six rebounds.

The Tamaraws slid to 4-10 despite the 21-point, seven-assist, six-rebound effort of Andres Desiderio and the 21-point, six-rebound output of Ken Bono.

The MPBL goes to the Paco Arena on Thursday with a triple-bill pitting Quezon against Sarangani at 4 p.m., Imus against Bicolandia at 6 p.m., and Zamboanga against Rizal at 8 p.m.