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| Joco Tayongtong bails out Caloocan Batang Kankaloo. MPBL |
SAN JUAN, MM--Batang Kankaloo showed composure down the stretch to defeat Manila, 79-78, at the start of the MPBL Playoffs on Saturday night at the FilOil EcoOil Centre.
Three straight free throws from Achie Inigo and Joco Tayongtong iced the game for Batang Kankaloo as emotions ran high late in the contest.
The endgame tension began when Ronnie Matias nearly charged Greg Slaughter after he was hit during their rebounding battle on a missed Irven Palencia free throw with 29.9 seconds left.
After he nudged Slaughter down, Matias attempted to shove him once more before his teammates pacified him.
Matias was sent off after incurring a technical foul, and Slaughter hit three straight free throws to cut Batang Kankaloo's lead down to two, 76-74.
The Stars had a chance to tie the game after Renzo Navarro stole the ball off Gabby Espinas' intended pass, but Romel Calahat stripped Mike Tolomia while on the run.
Slaughter fouled Calahat hard with 11.8 seconds left which did not sit well with the latter, leading to another commotion, and Slaughter was assessed with an unsportsmanlike foul, his second for the night that sent him off.
After Tolomia made his technical free throw for Calahat's actions, Inigo went 2-for-2 from the foul off Slaughter's flagrant foul.
Batang Kankaloo got to milk a significant amount of time left before Jorey Napoles fouled Tayongtong with 4.6 seconds left.
After making his first free throw, Tayongtong intentionally missed his second so Manila could not call a timeout.
Josh Torralba hit a buzzer-beating three for the final count.
Jeramer Cabanag scored 22 points, three assists, and one steal, while Tayongtong added 13 points, four rebounds, and three assists for Batang Kankaloo, which can close out the best-of-three first-round series next Saturday.
Slaughter and Napoles each had a 16-point, 10-rebound double-double for Manila, which will host Game 2.
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