The Pampanga Giant Lanterns immediately imposed their dominance over the Quezon Huskers with a dominant 88-71 win in Game 1 of the MPBL 2024 Season Finals on Sunday night (Monday morning in Manila) at the Al-Basr Club Rashid Bin Hamdan Indoor Hall in Dubai, UAE.
Brandon Ramirez finished with a double-double of 11 points and 11 rebounds as the defending champion Giant Lanterns took a 1-0 lead in the best-of-five title series.
“It was a good night for us, but we just got one game and we still have two more,” Ramirez said during his Player of the Game interview. “Our mindset is to keep going no matter what is in front of us.”
“Quezon, they are a tough team; credit to them, they are a very physical team, but we just stuck together and played our game,” added the Lubao, Pampanga-native big man.
Justine Baltazar led the Giant Lanterns with a near triple-double of 24 points, 16 rebounds, and seven assists, while Archie Concepcion contributed 17 points, three rebounds, one assist, and one steal.
The Giant Lanterns pulled off the victory despite the early ejection of star guard Encho Serrano due to a disqualifying foul against LJay Gonzales. He will be suspended in Game 2 of the Finals on Tuesday night.
Rodel Gravera finished with 20 points, including five three-point conversions, to go with three rebounds, two assists, and one steal for the Huskers.
