Cebu thwarts Quezon in Liga Misamis Oriental leg opener

GINGOOG CITY , Philippines  – M. Lhuillier-Cebu rode on a big fourth quarter run to crush Quezon, 92-75, at the start of the Misamis Oriental leg of the 2009 Smart Liga Pilipinas Conference II at the Arturo Lugod Memorial Sports and Cultural Center here Wednesday.

Mark Ababon scored on a three-point play to spark a searing 22-4 Cebu run as the Niños turned a 65-66 deficit in the last 5:46 into an 87-70 lead for the victory.

Woodraw Enriquez, Marlon Basco and Stephen Padilla also starred in that big Cebu attack as the Niños stayed in the hunt for a top 4 spot for the homecourt advantage in the playoffs beginning next week.

The Niños thus hiked their Liga tour points to 27 and remained in fifth, two points behind the third-running Red Oilers.

The Manila Capitals have 29 points although the Red Oilers have the better tiebreak quotient.

Padilla and Ababon led the Niños with 18 points each while Marlon Basco came up with 15 points and 11 rebounds. Mark Magsumbol paced the Red Oilers with 18 points while Ramsey Williams chipped in 15.

Host Misamis Oriental held off Iloilo, 73-70, to open its bid for another title in the other game.

The Meteors now have 43 tour points, just one behind the idle Trace Laguna Stallions in the race for top seeding for the playoffs.

The league is backed by Smart, ML Kwarta Padala, Air21, Accel, Burlington, Laptop Phoneshop Exchange, Nature’s Spring and Molten and sanctioned by the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (SBP).