Wildcats trounce Greywolves

CEBU, Philippines – The Cebu Institute of Technology (CIT) Wildcats squandered a 20-point lead midway through the fourth period but recovered in time to beat the Don Bosco Technology Center (DBTC) Greywolves, 91-82, for their first back-to-back wins in the 10th Cebu Schools Athletic Foundation, Inc. (CESAFI) season at the Cebu Coliseum.

The Wildcats, fresh from scoring a 94-92 upset over the University of San Jose-Recoletos (USJ-R) Jaguars, are on the brink of making a CESAFI record of three-game winning run when they test the mettle of the undermanned yet dangerous University of San Carlos (USC) Warriors in tonight's lone collegiate match.

Today also marks the first time in school history that the traditional whipping boys of the league, the Cebu Eastern College (CEC) Dragons, could go up for the first place in the standing when they take on the more experienced and cohesive University of Cebu (UC) Junior Webmasters

Arnel Ipang gave the Wildcats their largest lead at 21-points, 81-61, with still 6:42 left in the final canto but instead of bucking away, the Greywolves played like wounded tigers and came up with a vengeful retaliations as they managed to cut down the deficit to just seven points, 82-89, on a basket by Clarito Hernando, Jr.

The Greywolves, however, simply ran out of time because there were only 30 seconds left in the game.         

Without Curso at the frontline, Floyd Taboada came up with his breakout game leading the Wildcats with 20 points. Rookie Jose Allan Dimco added 20 points, while Ipang finished with 14 points.

The victory was the Wildcats' third in five games and their first back-to-back wins in quite a long while in CESAFI.

Despite missing lots of foul throws, Jefford Aldave still went on to lead the Greywolves with 20 points, while Jan Pons Geraga had 16 points followed by Hernando and Airell Tirado with 11 and 10 markers. (FREEMAN)