FORMER pro John Wilson sparkled in the endgame as defending champion and No. 2 Davao Occidental-Cocolife outlasted hard-fighting seventh seed Boracay, 73-71, Wednesday night in their knockout quarterfinals duel in the Manila Bankers Life-Pilipinas Super League Pro Division Second Conference Dumper Cup at the Bren Z. Guiao Convention Center in San Fernando, Pampanga.
Th 6-foot-2 Wilson scored the game’s final three points—a tough left-handed layup in the last 16.8 seconds that pegged a 72-71 count after former Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) star Mac Cardona gave the Islanders a 71-70 lead with a three-pointer in the previous play.
Wilson split his free throws to give Boracay a lifeline with only two seconds left and Cardona’s heave from half court missed the rim entirely at the buzzer.
Wilson finished with 19 points, eight rebounds and four assists for the Tigers, while Robby Celiz added 13 points, 10 rebounds and three assists.
Larry Rodriguez also had 10 points and four rebounds as Davao Occidental rebounded from an 80-91 loss to Boracay in Game 1 last Tuesday.
The Tigers advanced to the best-of-three semifinals against Pampanga Royce Hotel and unbeaten San Juan takes on the Pampanga G Lanterns in the other semifinals of the league presented by Dumper party-list, Winzir, and Skin Care Depot, co-presented by SCD Cosmetics, and supported by NET 25, Adcon, Wcube Solutions Inc., MDC, Unisol, Don Benitos, and Finn Cotton, with PBA and Gilas Pilipinas great Marc Pingris serving as commissioner.
Cardona scored 22 points for Boracay, while Johnsherick Estrada and Jaymar Gimpayan got 14 and 10 points, respectively.