Jaguars move a win away from 3rd place

CEBU, Philippines - The Ave Maria Sanctuary Park/USJ-R Jaguars moved within a win of claiming the third place trophy after scoring a 73-62 victory over the Prime asia/UV Lancers in the 3rd CESAFI Partners' Cup at the Cebu Coliseum.

As of this writing last night, Game 1 of the best-of-five championships series between Hotel Fortuna/SWU Cobras and the Enervon/UC Webmasters was still in progress.

While the Jaguars were oozing with confidence from the start, it seemed it was not the dangerous Lancers crew who played because it was obvious they lacked the spirit.

In one instance in the third period, the Jaguars kept on missing their attempts but they were left unchallenged resulting in four offensive rebounds, thus, creating doubts if the Lancers are indeed serious of winning.

Not even the 16 points made by Gregory Slaughter could bail out the Lancers from inevitable defeat because the rest played below par except for Elmer Mikael Cabahug, Jr. who finished 13 points.

The Jaguars, whose largest lead stood at 20 points at halftime, 45-25, were led by Kurt Amores with 16 points. John Michael Montenegro and Anecito Lapiz, Jr. chipped in had 14 and 11 points, respectively.

The Lancers tried but failed to complete a rally as the best they could muster was to pull within eight points, 58-67, on an 8-0 run capped by Slaughter's two charities.

The scores

Ave Maria/USJ-R (73) — Amores 16, Montenegro 14, Lapiz 11, Malinao 9, Ponce 7, Delfino 7, Llera 7, Abing 4, Bibera 3, Suliman 3

Prime Asia/UV (62 — Slaughter 16, Cabahug 13, Silva 6, Olivares 4, Lao 4, Dennison 4, Calo 2, Mercader 2, Sendrijas 2, Manigque 2, Benedicto 2 Halftime: 45-25. - GGM (THE FREEMAN)