Thursday, March 08, 2007 USC Warriors bury Panthers, 83-55
THE Hapee-University of San Carlos Warriors rediscovered their winning spirit as they pulled off a convincing 84-55 win over the Landmaster-University of Southern Philippines Foundation in last Tuesday’s Partner’s Cup at the Cebu Coliseum.
After getting derailed twice in back-to-back lopsided losses, the Warriors are getting back on track by pulling off two straight victories in the same fashion.
The Warriors improved their win-loss record to 4-2, and are now fourth in the standings.
The Warriors yesterday were virtually crippled as they were playing without key player Enrico Llanto, who has missed his last four games because of a back injury. To make matters worse, another crucial player, Ken Sharma, was benched because of a torn ACL.
However, the USP-F troop of coach Raul Latonio, who admitted that his squad has not practiced after its last game last week, failed to capitalize on USC’s deficiencies as the Panthers were hapless against Niño Ramirez, Johmel Igao and Earvin Ferraren, who stepped up in the absence of the two gunners.
Ramirez may have scored lower than his usual 20-point production, but was still the team’s topscorer with 16 markers. Ferarren scattered 14 points, while Igao added 12.
USP-F, which has a very young lineup, remains the only team to have not won a single game and ends the first round with a 0-7 win-loss ledger.
Today, the Warriors once more plunge into action for its last assignment for the first round. For today’s game, nothing will be more fulfilling for the Warriors than to win over Metro Gaisano-University of Cebu Webmasters, a longtime nemesis.
The two teams square off in the 6:30 p.m. main offering after an exciting match between CDO-University of the Visayas Green Lancers and Virginia-University of San Jose-Recoletos at 4:30 p.m.
Today’s game will be a coaching dilemma for the Warriors as they need to pull the plug on Junmar Fajardo, who has been on a spectacular run the whole tournament. They also need to put a cork on UC’s scoring machines Allain Abellanosa, Jonathan Canceran and Kane Abatayo.
Gaisano-UC, CDO-UV and Virginia-USJR will be playing today for the solo leadership as all three are currently at the top with 5-1 records. (MCB)
