Quezon City MG Cars geared up in the third quarter and proceeded to beat the Mindoro Tams, 88-83, on Tuesday in the OKbet-MPBL (Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League) 4th Season presented by Xtreme at the Nueva Ecija Coliseum in Palayan City.

Only 4 points (38-34) separated the two teams at the half until Quezon City revved up its offense through Jerick Nacpil, Marcy Arellano and Christopher Menguez in the next 10 minutes and pulled away, 70-54, en route to its first back-to-back wins and a 3-3 record in the single round-robin elimination round of the 22-team, 2-division tournament.

Loses pile up for Tams.

The Tams, who persevered to cut the margin at the buzzer, suffered their seventh defeat in eight starts.

Nacpil finished with 17 points and 7 rebounds for Quezon City, followed by Marlon Monte with 12 points, James Martinez 9 and Marcy Arellano 9 plus 10 assists, 8 rebounds and 2 steals for Quezon City, which sped away at 61-43.

Menguez chipped in 7 points, while Kyle Drexler Neypes added 6 points and 16 boards.
Mindoro got 19 points and 10 rebounds from Dariel Bayla, 17 points and 16 rebounds from Larce Sunga, 12 points and 6 assists from former Ginebra guard Teytey Teodoro and 11 points from homegrown Rodel Vaygan.

Quezon City was unable to find its mark from long range, hitting only 5 of 30 attempts, but Mindoro fared worse, making only 3 of 29 tries.

The MPBL goes to the Caloocan Sports Complex on Friday, July 15 with a triple-bill pitting Imus against Bataan at 5 p.m., Laguna against Rizal at 7 p.m. and Mindoro against Caloocan at 9 p.m.

The Scores:

• Quezon City MG Cars – 88 

• Mindoro Tamaraws  – 83