Mighty Manalang triple lifts Basilan over Nueva Ecija in MPBL finals

By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña

It was Philip Manalang’s only points of the game.

With 1.9 seconds left in the heart-racing 2021 Chooks-to-Go MPBL championship game and the score deadlocked at 80, the Basilan Jumbo Plastic Medical Depot still had plenty of time to generate a shot off a well-designed play out of the timeout.

As superstar Michael Juico surveyed the court for the inbound pass, Manalang found an open spot and curled himself at the top of the key for the three-point shot of the ages that won it for Basilan, 83-80, to cap off their dominant unbeaten run in the prestigious tournament.

Basilan survived a heroic performance from the tournament’s Most Valuable Player (MVP) Michael Mabulac of the Nueva Ecija Rice Vanguards who poured in 24 points and 11 rebounds.

It was a fairly matched grand finals game as both teams went toe-to-toe from the start of the buzzer until the overtime period.

Nueva Ecija grabbed several leads in the crucial stretches of the overtime but the young and clutch Encho Serrano kept Basilan in the ball game and sank a clutch trey and two free throws that tied the ball game with 50 seconds left.

It was an unfortunate turn of events for the Rice Vanguards after turning the ball over that rewarded Basilan with the last possession of the game, resulting in disaster when Manalang sank the Hail Mary shot.

Basilan’s mighty duo in the paint, Jay Collado and Shaq Taganas, also helped stabilize the shaded area and kept it up in the scoring against Mabulac as both scored 15 and nine, respectively.

The huge victory helped Basilan clinch the grand prize money of 2,000,000 pesos and the first-ever MPBL pocket tournament championship.