CEBU, Philippines - Spunky guard Quinton Brian Heruela came up with a stellar performance as defending champion University of Cebu (UC) Webmasters coasted to a 69-63 victory over the University of Southern Philippines Foundation (USPF) Panthers to grab the No.4 spot and a twice-to-beat incentive going into the playoffs of the 12th Cebu Schools Athletic Foundation, Inc. (CESAFI) men's basketball tournament today at the Cebu Coliseum.
The University of San Carlos (USC) Warriors, on the other hand, closed the elimination round with an 82-77 win over the Cebu Institute of Technology-University (CIT-U) Wildcats but they still fell to no. 5.
In the lone secondary match, the CIT-U Wildkittens eliminated the Don Bosco Technology Center (DBTC) Greywolves via a 72-50 rout.
Heruela, who scored the first 13 points for UC, exploited his heft and proved no match against his smaller defenders.
The Webmasters again used their three-point arsenals against the Panthers, making eight conversions from beyond the arc as Kim Gomez, Gil Wagas and Robinson Mohammad joined in the scoring fray.
Gomez and Wagas finished with 13 and 12 points, respectively, for UC, while Mohammad scored all his nine points from the 3-point land.
The Panthers, who will take on the second-ranked University of San Jose-Recoletos (USJ-R) Jaguars in the quarterfinals on Tuesday, were led by Fritz Dajalos with 14 points. The seventh seed Panthers nearly scored an upset against USJ-R, losing by just a hairline to the Jaguars during the first time they met. (GGM) (FREEMAN NEWS)