San Juan hardly felt the absence of team captain Janine Pontejos, cruising past Tagaytay-Tol, 76–46, to notch its second straight win in the 2025 Women’s Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League regular season presented by Akari, Wednesday at the Enderun Gym.
Chack Cabinbin stepped up in Pontejos’ absence, firing a game-high 24 points on an efficient 9-of-13 clip, while adding five assists and three steals to power the Lady Knights to their second straight win in the league backed by Uratex, Black Mamba, Red Dynasty, Aktive Balls, and Pocari Sweat.
“Siyempre doing good, doing good. Kasi lahat ng pinractice namin, lahat ng sacrifices nung mga bata — especially na wala si Janine [Pontejos] — talagang nag-work hard sila. Tinrabaho nila ‘yung practice namin, ‘yung preparation namin,” said San Juan head coach Ai Lebornio.
(C) WMPBL
After a tightly contested opening quarter, the Lady Knights clamped down on defense in the second and third frames — holding the Patriots to single-digit outputs — before erupting for 26 points in the fourth to completely put the game out of reach.
While Tagaytay-Tol showed improvement after scoring just nine and eight points in the previous two quarters, the team was simply outgunned by San Juan in the fourth.
The lead ballooned to as big as 32 points entering the final minute of the quarter after Hazel Panti drilled a three-pointer that gave the Lady Knights a 76-44 advantage.
Panti added 14 points, two assists, and two rebounds in the victory. Florence Talas recorded 13 points to go along with four rebounds, three assists, and seven steals, while Rejoice Adlawan had 12 points for San Juan, who improved their record to 2-0.
With Pontejos — who had 17 points in their 85-47 debut win over RK Hoops-Quezon City — out due to personal reasons, the Lady Knights also drew a big lift from their bench, which contributed 39 points in the win.
(C) WMPBL
On the other hand, Luisa San Juan paced the Patriots, who dropped to 0-2, with nine points on 3-of-11 shooting.
Bernice Paraiso chimed in with seven points, while Justine Domingo and Charmaine Natural each had six points.
The Scores:
San Juan 76 – Cabinbin 24, Panti 14, Talas 13, Adlawan 12, Tolentino 7, Ventura 3, Pedregosa 3, Ramos 0, Junsay 0, Paras 0, Mendaros 0
Tagaytay-Tol 46 – San Juan 9, Paraiso 7, Natural 6, Domingo 6, Harada 5, Santos 4, Jimenez 2, Gonato 2, Antonio 1, Del Prado 0, Cantimbuhan 0, Quingco 0
Quarterscores: 17-14, 32-23, 50-31, 76-46
