Cebu City: University of Visayas Green lancers made it three in a row with a 77-62 win over the University of Cebu Webmasters and proved to be the hottest team in the 15th season of the Cebu Schools Athletic Foundation Inc. (CESAFI) basketball tournament at the Cebu Coliseum Sunday.
In the second game the University of San Carlos Warriors came back strongly in the second half to whip the University of Southern Philippines Foundation Panthers 88-64.
While Franz Arong struggled to get his game going , former Batang Gilas Under 18 member Leonard Santillan made his presence felt from the opening tip alongside Alwin Aguirre and Cameroonian import Steve Akomo to anchor a formidable frontcourt trio against the smaller but quicker Webmasters to lead 22-13 at the end of the first quarter which they padded to 41-27 at the half.
The Webmasters clawed back behind sophomore Justine Dacalos and Peter Codilla whose booming triple cut the lead to 10 points, 41-31 at the start of the third quarter before the Green Archers launched a blistering counter-attack to widen the gap to 53-37 in the middle of the third.
Dacolos and former NBTC Mythical Five member Joseph Daniel Mayol gave the Webmasters some hope with three big triples, two of them courtesy of Mayol to trim the lead to 12, 59-47 at the end of the third quarter.
A three point shot by Melvin Butohan at the start of the payoff quarter trimmed the lead to 9 points, 59-50 but that was the closest the University of Cebu would get after a sudden slump in their outside shooting in which they made only 12 of 46 attempts enabled the UV Green Lancers to widen the gap further to 73-52, the largest lead of the game with 3:01 remaining from which point the UV squad never looked back.
Viva Sports TV panelists Rico Navarro and Sandi Grumo picked Santillan as the ?Best Player of the Game? with 13 points and 6 rebounds ahead of Aguirre who had 13 points and 4 boards while Akomo finished with 6 points, 11 big rebounds and 2 blocked shots.
Franz Arong who scored 19 points in his last game failed to score a basket in a miserable 0 of 7 attempts from the field while Dacalos led University of Cebu with 16 points, 8 rebounds and 3 steals with Butohan contributing 11 points although he shot a miserable 3 out of 17 from beyond the arc.
In the second game of the college division the University of San Carlos Warriors had a hard time dictating the tempo in the first half before they settled down and blew the game wide open against the University of Southern Philippines Foundation Panthers 88-64 behind the hot hand of Shooster Olago who scored 28 points and pulled down 12 rebounds and the ?Best Player of the Game? Ian Tagapan who had 13 points and 5 rebounds.
Brantford Borces led the winless Panthers who are 0-2 with 17 points and 12 rebounds while Kimo Matthews Bajamunde scored 12 points and grabbed 5 rebounds.
In the juniors division defending champions Sacred Heart School-Ateneo de Cebu routed the CIT-U Wildcats 72-47 for a 2-0 start to their title retention bid while the USPF Baby Panthers registered their first win of the season at the ex pense of the UC Junior Webmasters 93-68.
Box scores (Seniors):
1st game:
UV (77) -- Santillan 13, Aguirre 13, Mendoza 12, Akomo 8, Suerte 7, Veloso 6, A. Codilla 5, Balabag 4, Manzo 3, Macion 2, Segumpan 2, Caba?ero 2, Arong 0, Napao 0.
UC (62) -- Dacalos 16, Butohan 11, Mayol 6, Santander 5, P. Codilla 5, Culango 4, Suelto 3, Jabello 3, Tagudin 3, Puerto 2, Montilla 2, Dumat-ol 2, Grafilo 0, Luzares 0.
Quarter Scores: 22-13; 41-27; 59-47; 77-62.
2nd game:
USC (88) -- Olago 26, Tagapan 13, Oleodo 9, Ortega 8, Pepito 8, Rabat 7, McAloney 6, Laguyo 4, Suarez 3, Adlawan 2, Lim 1, Magat 0.
USPF (64) -- Borces 17, Bajamunde 12, Bolivar 6, Alocillo 6, Laver 5, Villamor 4, Avance?a 3, Quiachon 3, Patalinghug 3, Langahin 3, Ceniza 2, Colina 0, Sastrillas 0, Cando 0.
Quarter Scores: 18-18; 34-28; 63-44; 88-64.
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