Defending champion Nueva Ecija, former titlist Batangas and pacesetter Pampanga showed their strength in the OKBet-MPBL (Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League) Fifth Season at the Caloocan Sports Complex on  Wednesday, Aug. 16.

The Nueva Ecija Rice Vanguards fended off the final assaults of the GenSan Warriors to prevail, 97-93, and keep in step with the Pampanga Giant Lanterns, who routed the Oriental Mindoro Disiplinados, 91-70, in the elimination round triple bill.

Not to be outdone, the Batangas City Embassy Chill Athletics subdued the Caloocan Batang Kankaloo, 80-67, in the nightcap to climb to second spot behind the idle Bacoor Strikers in the South division of the 29-team tournament.

GenSan threatened twice, the last at 84-85 on a triple by Mark Cruz, but Nueva Ecija's John Bryon Villarias responded with a triple and Michael Mabulac scored underneath with just 40 seconds left to lift the Rice Vanguards to their 20th win against four losses, trailing Pampanga (22-2) in the North division.

Will McAloney led Nueva Ecija with 14 points and 11 rebounds, followed by Jonathan Uyloan with 14 points, Mabulac with 13 points plus five rebounds, Roi Sumang with 12 points, and Villarias with 12 points, five assists, five rebounds plus five steals. Michael Juico also did his part with 10 points plus seven rebounds.

GenSan got 17 points, seven rebounds plus four assists from Kyt Jimenez, 16 points, eight rebounds plus eight assists from Larry Rodriguez, 14 points each from John Wilson and Cruz, who also snagged eight rebounds, and 11 points plus seven rebounds from Enzo Joson.

The Nueva Ecija-GenSan encounter was close all the way with neither team leading by more than seven points.

Batangas also met tough resistance from Caloocan but eventually pulled away behind Juneric Baloria and Jeckster Apinas for its 18th win against five losses that displaced GenSan (18-6). Bacoor stayed in front with its 19-4 record.

Baloria wound up with 17 points, 11 in the second half, to complement the 10-point, 19-rebound, five-assist output of Apinan. Ochea contributed 10 points plus 12 rebounds as Batangas ruled the boards, 55-45.

The Batang Kankaloo, who dropped to 17-8, got 14 points from Reil Cervantes, 11 from Mac Baracael and 10 from Paul Sanga.

Pampanga allowed Mindoro to score the game's first 10 points before hitting its stride behind Encho Serrano to pull away, 71-47, late in the third quarter.

With MVP race-leader Justine Baltazar fielded sparingly, Serrano tallied 23 points, five assists and four rebounds for Pampanga, which also got 14 points, nine assists plus eight rebounds from Jayson Castro Apolonio and 13 points each from Archie Concepcion and Louie Sangalang.

Baltazar settled for four points and five assists in a 10-minute stint that stopped his double-double streak at 22.

Oriental Mindoro, which tumbled to 4-20, got 13 points plus 16 rebounds from Kristan Hernandez and 13 points,  nine rebounds plus five assists from Paolo Hubalde.

The MPBL visits the Muntinlupa Sports Complex on Thursday with games pitting Imus against Paranaque at 4 p.m., San Juan against Valenzuela at 6 p.m., and Makati against Muntinlupa at 8 p.m.