A diamond earns its sparkle from the pressure it endures.

And Pasig City MCW Sports had plenty of its gem shining bright on Friday, Oct. 13 after pulling off a stunning 65-61 victory over Caloocan to live to fight another day in Game 2 of their best-of-three quarterfinals series in the Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League playoffs at the Caloocan Sports Complex.

In front of the boisterous and hostile Batang Kankaloo home crowd and with their backs against the wall,  the Tropang Pasig displayed poise under pressure as Robbie Manalang took charge in the payoff period to force a winner-take-all Game 3.

Manalang poured 10 of his 23 points in the final frame including the booming step back triple that put Pasig ahead for good and a beautiful gliding layup that gave his team a 62-58 cushion with 1:21 left in the contest.

Struggling offensively all-game long, Ryan Costelo then came up huge in the waning minutes, nailing a tough pullup jumper that capped the blistering 8-0 finishing kick from the guest team – much to the delight of the small portion of fans behind the Pasig bench that included team owner Buddy Encarnado and to the horror of the wild Caloocan crowd.

“Our backs are against the wall. They are a much experienced team, taller and most of all, they have the home court advantage. But I told them the key to overcoming all of this is playing with poise,” shared Encarnado whose pre-game pep talk certainly fired up all of the Tropang Pasig

“You have to play with poise so that you can overcome pressure, so that your game will come out, your true form will come out. And luckily, the boys heeded my call and responded the way they played in front of a full stadium, 99% of which were from Caloocan,” he added.

Kenny Rocacurva stepped up as well, keeping Pasig afloat in the third frame where he dropped 10 of his 16 points. Costelo added eight points while Jason Ballesteros, although scoreless, made his presence felt on the defensive end with 10 rebounds and a block 

The win not only tied the series to 1-1 but also allowed Pasig to erase the bitter taste of its Game 1 loss which it could have won if not for their late free throw woes and late heroics from Gabby Espinas.

Paul Sanga paced Caloocan with 12 while Espinas and Ronnie Matias added 10 apiece.

Momentum however is surely on the side of Pasig as it hopes to replicate the win in Game 3 in front of the Caloocan crowd once again.

In the earlier match, Pampanga drubbed Marikina, 81-61 to formalize its entry to the North Division semifinals. Justin Baltazar put up an all-around performance of 21 points, 11 rebounds and five assists.

The Giant Lanterns now await the winner of the clash between the Batang Kankaloo and Tropang Pasig.