Baby Lancers rule

CEBU, Philippines - The University of the Visayas (UV) Baby Lancers rose from the dead in the final quarter and pulled a heart-stopping 85-82 victory over Sacred Heart School-Ateneo de Cebu to bag the secondary division crown of the CESAFI basketball tournament at the Cebu Coliseum last night.

The Baby Lancers were down by ten, 55-65, entering the final canto of the deciding game 5 of their series in the jam-packed stadium.

After four minutes of action in the last period, UV took the upperhand, 70-67, off a triple by Nelson Peralta.

Several Baby Lancers also chipped in for the fourth-quarter binge where they outscored the Magis Eagles, 30-17.

MVP Andres Paul Desiderio led the UV offense en route to a top scoring 21 points.

SHS-AdC, which was also last year’s bridesmaid, gave UV all sorts of trouble and even threatened to reverse the outcome.

Henry Renzar Asilum canned a floater with 19.7 seconds to go putting the Magis Eagles to within one, 80-81, but that was the best they could muster.

Desiderio secured the win for UV with three free throws in the dying moments and capped his performance with a huge defensive rebound that erased all hopes of a SHS-AdC come back.

Desiderio also led the members of the mythical five. The others were his teammates Dexter Lucero and Peralta and completing the line up were Henric Dawn Ochea and Julius Cadavis of SHS-AdC.

James Neil Sumayang of Cebu Eastern College was supposed to be part of the selection, but his spot was instead was given to Lucero as the former already left for Bacolod.   

Ron Marvis Dennison and Peralta had 14 and 13 points each for the Baby Lancers while Matthew Oche, also one vital cogs of the victory, added 12 markers.   

Coach Delfin Pepito Jr. of UV said that they are happy for the win because they have waited for three years for this.

In 2008, UV beat University of Cebu in the high school finals.

"Pasalamat ko sa management sa suporta nga ilang gihatag namo ilabi na sa Gullas family ug pasalamat sab mi sa among mga fans," Pepito said.

UV team manager Samsam Gullas said that he too is very overwhelmed with their victory being the first under his watch.

SHS-AdC, took command at the second quarter behind Asilum, a member of the Philippine Junior Gilas team.

He top scored for the Magis Eagles with 19 points.

Ochea added 14 points while Aaron Sing made 12, which all came from the three-point zone and all in the third quarter. Jari Igna also had 12 for Ateneo.

Ateneo big man Julius Cadavis was, however, limited to just eight points.   

The socres:   

UV (Jrs.) 85 -- Desiderio 21, Dennison 14, Peralta 13, Oche 12, Ugsang 9, Undaloc 6, Lucero 4, Berdin 4, de los Santos 2   

SHS-AdC (Jrs.) 82 -- Asilum 19, Ochea 14, Sing 12, Igna 12, Go 9, Cadavis 8, Yu 6, Suarez 4.  - THE FREEMAN