NUEVA Ecija continued to flaunt its strength with a 107-81 crushing of Imus Monday night in the OKBet-MPBL 4th Season presented by Extreme at the Batangas City Coliseum.

The star-studded Rice Vanguards surged ahead by as many as 33 points, 105-72, on a lay-up by homegrown John Arenas with only 2 minutes and 9 seconds left to tally their fourth straight victory in as many starts.

John Bryon Villarias again sparkled for the Rice Vanguards with 18 points and 5 steals while Michael Mabulac did his share with 15 points and 9 rebounds.

They were supported by Will McAloney and Renz Palma with 12 and 11 points, respectively.

Imus, which tumbled to 1-3, got 19 points from homegrown icon Ian Melencio and 16 points from Adrian Celada.

Resurgent Pasig bested San Juan, 68-64, in the tight nightcap to rev up its drive in the 22-team tournament.

Trailing, 63-64, with 1:10 to go, the Realtors blanked the Knights the rest of the way and knocked in 5 points to preserve their third straight victory after dropping their first game.

Jun Manzo canned his two charities to push Pasig back on top after which Carlo Lastimosa drilled in a jumper for a 67-64 count with still 26 seconds to go.

The Realtors tightened up their defenses to force a turnover by Clint Dominguez, who gave up a foul on Marc Tamayo, with time down to 18 seconds.

Tamayo missed the first but converted the second for the final tally that pushed San Juan down to 1-3.

Lastimosa scored 22 points and Manzo 18 to complement the 13-point, 13-rebound effort of Jason Melano.

San Juan got 18 points and 9 rebounds from Jammer Jamito and 12 points plus 4 rebounds from 6-foot-7 Christian Bunag of the Mapua Cardinals.

The MPBL goes to the Bacoor Strike Gym with a triple-bill featuring the debuting Bacoor Strikers against the Mindoro Tamaraws (0-5) at 9 p.m.

Other games pit Makati (1-3) against Laguna (0-1) at 5 p.m. and Sarangani (4-0) against GenSan (1-3) at 7 p.m. Both Sarangani and GenSan are being supported by OKBet.