MANDAUE CITY — Cebu Landmaster-Mandaue pulled off a 76-71 decision over Forward Taguig but left with an empty bag in a dramatic final day of the preliminary round of the Smart Liga Pilipinas Conference III Mandaue City Leg Friday at the Mandaue City Cultural and Sports Center.

Needing to win by at least 10 points in order to force a three-way tie with Taguig and the Quezon Red Oilers at 2-1, Mandaue was leading as much as 13 markers in the fourth period.

However, Taguig slowly closed the gap as Mandaue put up a series of hurried plays that allowed their opponents to score off their miscues.

Quezon, Taguig and Mandue finished the elims with 2-1 records but it was the Red Oilers and Batang Global who earned the seats in the leg finals due to their superior FIBA quotients of 1.053 and 1.000, respectively.

Mandaue finished at 0.947 and will meet the winless Zamboanga Uno Latinos for third.

Boyet Bautista, who played for Taguig in Conference I, led Mandaue with 16 points followed by Jercules Tangkay with 12 points and seven rebounds. Lou Gatumbato again led Taguig with 20 points and four assists. Ariel de Castro contributed 13 markers.

The Mandaue City Leg champion will have the inside track at the second outright seat in next month’s five-team Super Leg that will determine the next national champion of the league.

The undefeated M. Lhuillier Kwarta Padala-Cebu Niños are already assured of the top seeding with an unreachable 45 points.

Earlier in the day, the Red Oilers of Governor Raffy Nantes scored a 143-85 drubbing of the Latino.