For the seventh straight game,\u00a0 the Nueva Ecija Rice Vanguards looked every bit of a champion squad and against home team Caloocan, this formidable quintet from Central Luzon appeared determined to reclaim the MPBL crown.<\/p>\n
The Rice Vanguards dealt their rivals a sound beating, 73-53, as Jaycee Marcelino provided the spunk needed by his team, which coasted to its seventh straight win and remained unblemished in the league\u2019s 2025 Season at the Caloocan Sports Complex.<\/p>\n
Marcelino pumped in 16 markers to go along with five assists and sparked the Rice Vanguards\u2019 domination of one of the league\u2019s contenders.<\/p>\n
Earlier, defending champion Pampanga found stiff resistance against the league\u2019s newest franchise, Ilagan Isabela, but the bigger, more experienced Giant Lanterns held on to preserve a 77-72 win.<\/p>\n
Larry Muyang, who formed the triple-tower front court along with Jhaymo Eguilos and Cris Lalata, posted yet another double-double performance of 17 points and 11 boards.<\/p>\n
A homegrown player, Muyang also hit 7-of-11 shots from the field.<\/p>\n
The Valenzuela Classics, on the other hand, leaned on Jan Formento and Kobe Monje to subdue the Gensan Warriors, 96-91, in overtime on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Formento and Monje fired six points each to negate the eight-point outburst of Gensan’s Larry Rodriguez in the extension period and lift the Classics to a 3-3 slate in the round-robin elimination phase of the 30-team tournament.<\/p>\n
Gensan threatened at 89-90 following a triple by Rodriguez, but Louie Vigil canned a jumper, Monje got free under, and JR Alabanza made his second free throw to ensure Valenzuela’s victory, 95-89, with 31 seconds left.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
For the seventh straight game,\u00a0 the Nueva Ecija Rice Vanguards looked every bit of a champion squad and against home team Caloocan, this formidable quintet from Central Luzon appeared determined to reclaim the MPBL crown. The Rice Vanguards dealt their rivals a sound beating, 73-53, as Jaycee Marcelino provided the spunk needed by his team,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2510,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[105],"class_list":["post-2509","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hoops-basketball","tag-mpbl"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t