Lancers hit back at Cobras to even series

CEBU, Philippines - The University of the Visayas (UV) Green Lancers scraped through an 81-79 victory over the Southwestern University (SWU) Cobras in Game 2 to even their best-of-five seniors division finals in the 12th Cebu Schools Athletic Foundation, Inc. (CESAFI) basketball season last night at the Cebu Coliseum.

Newly-crowned MVP Hernal "Wowie" Escocio struggled almost the entire game including a bunch of missed free throws, but he made up from his slump with a huge recovery after giving the University of the Visayas (UV) Green Lancers an 80-78 lead in the final 13.3 seconds of the contest.

In the ensuing sequence, flashy pointguard John Michael Abad split his charities and that was all he needed to help UV escape with a heart-stopping conquest of the Cobras.

There could be too many heroes for the Lancers in preventing a deep 0-2 hole as trailed by 10 points on two occasions, the last time was at 50-60 at the final 8:50 mark of the contest.

Monbert Arong drilled in eight three-pointers including a huge buzzer-beater ending the third period to finish with 28 points, but the star of the night was Abad, who tied the count at 78-all with 41.9 seconds left before Escocio put the Lancers back on top.

The playing filed was leveled late in the fourth period when the Cobras' Cameroonian recruits Benoit M'bala and Justine Aboude trooped to the showers with five fouls. It was in that juncture that the Lancers decided not to play a 2-3 zone to discourage the Cobras from enjoying a space enough to launch long distance attempts as Arong was sizzling all throughout the match.

The Cobras were leading by six points, 72-66, after Arong buried one of his bone-breaking treys, but a technical foul by SWU coach Raul Alcoseba for continuous complaining with 2:35 to go in the final canto gave the Lancers a chance to comeback.

After that infraction, the Lancers outscored the Cobras, 9-1, with time winding down to 1:55 and the Lancers led by two, 75-73, on Eman Calo's lay-up. The only basket from the Cobras in that stretch was a free throw by Joseph Nalos.

Calo led the Lancers with 19 points even as he was also a huge factor in defense. Abad added 17 points and Escocio chipped in 16 points, while 6-foot-7 Nigerian center Steve Cedrick Akomo added 10 markers.

The other top contributors for the Cobras were M'bala with 19 points, Bernie Bregondo with 12 points and Bonifacio Guillena III with 10 points.

Game 3 of the series will be played on Monday yet because the Coliseum is not available. (FREEMAN)

The scores

UV (81) - Calo 19, Abad 17, Escocio 16, Akomo 10, Mendoza 6, Mercader 4, Silva 3, Oktubre 2, Perolino 2

SWU (79) - Arong 28, Mbala 19, Bregondo 12, Guillena 10, Nalos 5, Ortuyo 3, Aboude 2

Halftime: 26-33