The sweet-shooting guard from National University lived up to his growing reputation as one of the country’s finest shooters by knocking in two vital three-point shots to lift Harbour Centre to a 77-66 win over Burger King yesterday in the PBL Lipovitan Amino Sports Cup at the Rizal Memorial Coliseum.

In the first game, Bacchus Energy Drink went to Hafer Mondragon and Christian Luanzon at crunch time to beat Toyota Otis for the second straight time in the season-ending tournament.

Protecting a precarious 51-48 lead, Fernandez ended the third quarter with a booming trey, which was enough to give the Batang Pier the second wind and finally take the fight out of the Whoppers.

Another triple by Fernandez in a bristling 11-2 run at the start of the payoff period proved lethal as the Batang Pier took a 65-50 lead. They stretched this to 69-52 after TY Tang and Beau Belga made their free throws.

With the win, the Batang Pier extended their run to eight this conference and 10th overall since winning the title last conference.

Still, Gallent was disappointed with their win.

“I’m really disappointed again. They lost their discipline in the third and we almost surrendered the lead,” rued Gallent.

With their first unit scoring almost at will, the Batang Pier took a 23-8 lead at the end of the first quarter before padding it to 34-12 early in the second quarter.

The 6-foot-3 Mondragon scored all but two of his 11points in the payoff period while Luanzon made all his four gift shots in the final 28 seconds to frustrate the Sparks anew.

With the win — actually their third over the Sparks dating back the last conference — the Raiders improved their record to 4-5.

The Sparks, who dropped their first five games, slipped to 2-6.

“Hafer stepped up big today and his baskets late in the game spelled the big difference,” beamed Bacchus coach Lawrence Chongson. “We just matched their intensity down low.”

In what could be his best game since playing in the league two years back, Mondragon drained a triple to shatter a 64-64 count with two minutes left.

His confidence boosted by that surprise trey, he connected two more baskets that kept the Sparks at bay, 71-68.

After Cholo Villanueva missed a potential game-tying three-point shot, Luanzon grabbed the rebound. He was fouled but calmly made his two gift shots for a 73-68lead.

RJ Jazul put the Sparks back in the game with a desperate trey but Luanzon proved steady from the foul line, making his two gift shots to finally seal the win.

Curiously, Mondragon played for Toyota Otis under coach Louie Alas for one year before transferring to Bacchus last year.

Luanzon banged in 17 points to lead four other Bacchus players in double figures. Also shining for the Raiders was comebacking Rey Guevarra who sizzled with 11 points, six of them in the third period that kept the Raiders in the thick of the game.

Only Patrick Cabahug and Jazul scored in double figures for the Sparks with 14 and 11 points,respectively.

Chito Jaime, who was just named Player of the Week by the PBL Press Corps, was a huge disappointment this time as he was held to a free throw in 20 minutes of action. In the team’s last two games, Jaime averaged 18 points and 10.5 rebounds.