Niños bag fourth straight Liga leg crown, earn super 60

MANILA, Philippines - The M. Lhuillier Kwarta Padala-Cebu Niños became the first team to score a sweep of all their touring games after they stopped the defending national champion Misamis Oriental Meteors, 91-81, to capture the Smart Liga Pilipinas Conference III Zamboanga City leg crown at the Summit Centre of the Universidad de Zamboanga in Zamboanga City over the weekend.

The Niños won all their 16 games in the elims phase to pool a maximum of 60 points and grab the undisputed top seeding heading into the Super Leg later this month where the national champion will be known.

Held to an average of four points in the prelims, power forward Ariel Mepana came off the bench to fire 19 points while Mark Magsumbol added 16 points for the Niños.

Eder Saldua shot 28 points for the Meteors but Patrick Cabahug was limited to only 13 points after averaging 23.3 points in their first three outings in the tournament backed by Smart, Molten, Accel, Calcium-Cee, Gatorade, Air 21 and Burlington and sanctioned by the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (SBP).

The Meteors earned five points for placing second and finished with 33 total points for third place ahead of Forward Taguig, which has 32 points.