Cebu stays alive, advances to MPBL play-in

Sports

DESPITE a shaky elimination-round campaign, the Cebu Greats avoided outright elimination. Barely.

The Greats managed to hang on to the 10th spot and secured the last play-in spot in the South Division of the Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League (MPBL).

This unexpected turn of events happened after the Muntinlupa Cagers and the Sarangani Marlins dropped their last assignments.

Cebu ended the elimination round with 11 wins and 18 losses while Sarangani and Muntinlupa collected 10 victories and 19 defeats.

The Greats ended the elimination round with an 80-71 victory over Bacolod, a win that snapped Cebu’s three-game slide. Despite the win, Cebu was still out of the play-in picture but eventually advanced to the next round following the twin losses of Muntinlupa and Sarangani.

In the play-in, the Greats will take on the Davao Occidental Tigers, who ended the eliminations with a 97-91 win over Quezon City on Monday, Sept. 29.

The Tigers emerged as the ninth seed after tallying 12 wins against seven losses.

The Cebu-Davao match will be held on Oct. 4 at the Mindoro Sports Complex. The Tigers will enjoy some sort of a psychological advantage in the crucial match as they defeated the Greats in their Sept. 15, 64-59.(CCM)