CEBU, Philippines - The University of the Visayas (UV) Baby Lancers last night clamped down the shooters of Sacred Heart School-Ateneo de Cebu (SHS-AdC) Magis Eagles and put a stifling defense on Julius Cadavis to come up with an 81-56 demolition in Game 2 and even their best-of-five title series at one game apiece in the 11th Cebu Schools Athletic Foundation, Inc. (CESAFI) juniors basketball at the Cebu Coliseum.
As of this writing last night, defending champion University of Cebu (UC) Webmasters are gunning for a psychological 2-0 advantage over the Southwestern University (SWU) Cobras.
As usual, the Baby Lancers banked on the heroics of leading scorer Andres Paul Desiderio, who topscored with 19 points even as the rest of his teammates also actively had their shares in offense.
The Baby Lancers, who lost in the opener, 82-94, handcuffed all gunners of the Magis Eagles. They also spoiled the return of PHL Youth Under-16 member Henry Renzar Asilum, who, aside from scoring only two points, also had tentative offense resulting to an erratic showing.
Aaron Sing, who likes to lunge a triple, was held scoreless. Jari Igna only had two points and Maverick Suarez three.
Cadavis found himself in deep trouble and perhaps lost his patience due to a lot of muscles going against him at the post. He finished with a measly five points.
The Baby Lancers started to pull away in the third period and had the job done during that stretch when they ended it with a 19- point lead, 66-47.
It was already a done deal for the Baby Lancers the entire fourth period leading by as many as 24 points, 79-55, with only three minutes remaining.
It was by far the largest losing margin by the Magis Eagles this season.
Ron Marvis Dennison, who fouled out late in the game, finished with 16 points while Nelson Peralta and Mathew Oche added 12 and 11 points, respectively.
Patrick Go led the Magis Eagles with 16 points followed by Henric Dawn Ochea with 13.
Game 3 of the series in both high school and collegiate divisions will be on Thursday.
Earlier, the University of Southern Philippines bagged the third place honors in the juniors division after scoring a 78-72 victory over the dethroned Cebu Eastern College (CEC) Dragons, while the University of San Carlos (USC) finished off the UV Lancers, 64-61, in the collegiate level.
The scores
UV (81) - Desiderio 19, Dennison 16, Peralta 12, Oche 11, Delos Santos 8, Lucero 8, Ugsang 3, Fernandez 2, Tudio 2
SHS-AdC (56) - Go 16, Ochea 13, Yu 9, Cadavis 5, Suarez 3, Igna 2, Lim 2, Asilum 2 Halftime: 42-33 (FREEMAN)