H Centre repulses Toyota for No. 5

Five-peat seeking Harbour Centre went to Jason Castro and Chad Alonzo at crunchtime as it thwarted Toyota Otis, 89-83, yesterday to extend its win streak to five in the PBL Lipovitan Amino Sports Cup at the Rizal Memorial Coliseum.

Castro, a former two-time MVP, scored seven of his 19 points while Alonzo banged in seven of his 13 down the stretch as Batang Pier held on to pound out the hard-earned victory.

“Jason Castro bailed us out and Chad also made some crucial baskets,” said Harbour Centre coach Jorge Gallent.

It was a tough win for the Mikee Romero-owned franchise, which built leads of as many as 16 points in the early going of the contest it was expected to dominate.

In one stretch, the Sparks, behind Cholo Villanueva and rookie Roel Balgos, crawled back from a 13-26 deficit and even seized a 64-62 lead at the end of the third period.

Earlier, Burger King outlasted Bacchus Energy Drink in a tight, low-scoring ballgame, leaning on Kelvin Gregorio’s endgame heroics to hack out a thrilling 53-50 victory.

Gregorio went scoreless in the first three quarters but made the baskets that mattered most, including a shot-clock beating triple in the last three minutes that shattered a 48-all count and gave the Whoppers the momentum for the win.

“That was the turning point of the game. I have to give that to the other Gregorio of the team,” said Burger King coach Allan Gregorio. “It came just at the right time.”

The win was the fourth for the Whoppers in six starts while dealing the Bacchus Raiders their fourth loss against two victories.

“We really struggled this time but I’m glad we managed to come back and finish it,” said Gregorio. “We just hope to play better the next time.”

After Gregorio’s triple, both teams misfired in their offensive thrusts as they failed to score a single field goal the rest of the way.

Abby Santos broke the spell with a split to give Burger a 52-48 lead but two charities by Mark Yee on the other end brought Bacchus back into the game, 50-52, with 5.7 seconds remaining in the contest.

The Raiders actually had a chance to send the game into overtime after Burger’s Kiel Misa muffed the front end of his charities but Christian Luanzon, owner of the conference record of 32 points, muffed a potential game-tying triple.

For a while, the Raiders appeared headed for their third straight win as they built a 38-30 lead early in the fourth but Mike Bravo and Gregorio hit back-to-back triples to fuel the Whoppers’ big comeback.

Misa led Burger King with 12 points on top of eight assists, four rebounds and two steals in 27 minutes of action while Luanzon again paced the Raiders with 11 points.