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Harbour Centre steals win from Magnolia, 76-75

abs-cbnNEWS.com | 11/20/2008 6:29 PM

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Reed Juntilla scored 16 of his 25 points in the final canto as Harbour Centre squeaked past Magnolia Purewater, 76-75, to grab the solo lead in the 2009 PBL PG Flex Linoleum Cup Thursday at the Jose Rizal University Gym in Mandaluyong.

The Batang Pier relied on the red-hot shooting of Edwin Asoro, Rico Maierhofer and Juntilla, clawing their way back into contention after being down by 16 points in the first half.

But it was Juntilla’s four straight free throws in the last two minutes that turned the favor to Harbour Centre, enabling the Batang Pier to notch their third straight win in as many outings.

The loss was Magnolia’s first as they dropped to a share of second to fourth places with Hapee Toothpaste and Burger King.

With the Batang Pier down by four, 74-70, Juntilla drove straight to the basket and drew a foul from Neil Raneses who was slapped a technical plus ball possession after the Magnolia forward protested the call just two minutes left.

Harbour Centre guard Mark Barroca made it a six-point swing by scoring a jumper.

The Magnolia Wizards had a chance to tie the game but Dylan Ababou split his charities with 31 ticks left.

Harbour’s victory was only insured only after Asoro towered over three Magnolia defenders to grab the ball as time expired.

Joel Gallent was so relieved with the win, saying: “Our never-say-die attitude saved us again. This is I think our biggest win so far because we showed we have  character.”

But Gallent reserved his biggest compliment to Juntilla.

“He wants to win the game so he stepped up big time today,” said Gallent of Juntilla who also grabbed nine rebounds, three assists and a steal in 29 minutes of action.