Games today (Cebu Coliseum)
5:15 pm CIT-U vs. DBTC (jrs.)
6:45 pm USPF vs. UC (srs.)
CEBU, Philippines - Tournament darkhorse University of Southern Philippines Foundation (USPF) Baby Panthers made a strong finishing kick to walk away with an 81-70 victory over the smaller University of Cebu (UC) Junior Webmasters in last night’s high school match-up of the 11th Cebu Schools Athletic Foundation, Inc. (CESAFI) basketball season at the Cebu Coliseum.
Veteran Rommel Diapera had a game-high 31 points to lead the Baby Panthers, who improved their win-loss record to 7-3. Jason Cando was the other Baby Panther who chipped in double figures with 17 points as he helped decide the game with his late points and important rebounds.
The Junior Webmasters outscored the Baby Panthers in the fourth period, 27-16 but the rally came too late and the latter’s defense was easily broken especially by Cando, Diapera and center Winston Bolivar.
They tried to came back but after slicing the gap to just nine points, 66-75, in the final 1:54 of the contest,the Baby Panthers made one strong final push to extend their lead to 16 points, 81-65, before the Junior Webmasters settled to an 11-point loss, their eighth in 10 games.
Andre Armenion topscored for the Junior Webmasters with 18 points and he could have easily scored more than 20 points if he did not foul out inside the two-minute mark of the ballgame.
He had slight offensive backings from Jomari Bacalso and Filbert Almario, who finished with 15 and 10 points, respecitvely.
As of presstime last night, the University of san Carlos (USC) Warriors were still playing against the Cebu Institute of Technology-University (CIT-U) Wildcats where the former hopes to be back in contention after losing two games in the second round dropping them into a 4-4 win-loss record.
The scores
USPF (81) - Diapera 31, Cando 17, Remedio 8, Bolivar 8, Gairanod 7, Cabungcal 4, Apabo 3, Villarta 2, Mangaron 1
UC 70- Armenion 18, Baalso 15, Almario 10, Trangia 7, Villaceran 6, Grafilo 6, Nemeño 6, Nimel 2. - THE FREEMAN