The Wipro Wildcats flirted with disaster before nailing a tight 63-60 win over the Sykes Pioneers last Sunday in the 2013 E-League for Basketball at the City Sports Club-Cebu Gym.
The Wildcats appeared headed to an easy win when they took off to with a 19-13 lead.
Wipro remained in control in the next two periods and even brought a 50-38 advantage entering the final quarter.
The Pioneers retaliated and outscored the Wildcats in the final period, 13-22, but still did not quite clinch it. The Wildcats narrowly escaped this outing with with timely hits for their seventh win in nine games.
Reinario Salibay Jr. paced the Wildcats with 24 markers.
Frederick Montelibano scored 18 markers, while Gerald Bien Galarido had 16 for the Pioneers, who absorbed their fourth loss in nine games.
Also scoring a big win was defending champion Stream Ingenyouity, which clobbered the 1&1 Marauders, 77-64.
Joselito Aranda finished with 15 points to lead four Stream players in double figures. Marvin Alquilos tallied 13, while Sylvester Millevo and and Ivan Cres Dela Torre added 12 and 10, respectively.
Stream improved to 8-1 (win-loss).
Jan Isiah Gabest fired a game-high 24 points and Arnel Azarcon had 14 in a losing cause as the Marauders stumbled to their sixth defeat in nine outings.
Just like Stream, the Aegis Vipers also improved to 8-1 with a default win over the ASI Hardbacks. The Hardbacks fell to 2-6./EDITORIAL ASSISTANT CALVIN D. CORDOVA