Friday, August 17, 2007 Llanto saves Warriors By Marian C. Baring Sun.Star Staff Reporter
HE IS silent but deadly. Smooth but sneaky. These are just a few of the factors that brought Enrico Llanto the Most Valuable Player trophy.
Less flashy than his partner Niño Ramirez, the University of San Carlos center Llanto played the biggest part in taking his team to their third straight win in the Cebu Schools Athletic Foundation Inc. by scoring a season-high 32 points in their 109-105 overtime victory over the University of Cebu Webmasters Wednesday night at the Cebu Coliseum.
The win puts USC in a three-way tie with the University of the Visayas Green Lancers and the Southwestern University Cobras at the top of the standing with identical 3-0 win-loss records.
USC looked like it had the game in the bag in the first three periods, as it maintained double-digits lead.
However, in the final few minutes of the third, UC launched a fierce comeback and pulled an 8-0 run—capped by a buzzer beater triple from Allain Abellanosa—to slice USC’s lead to two, 70-72, going into the final round.
Break
USC managed to once more break the game open wide to take a 79-72 advantage but UC was able to pull within a manageable margin behind the efforts of Abellanosa and beanpole Christian Rez. By the 1:33 mark, UC was able to take the driver’s seat, 92-89.
Llanto then converted his charities to pull closer, 91-92, with just 30 seconds left. UC could have wrapped the game up in their favor had Jonathan Canceran sank the shot from the perimeter.
Bungled shot
He missed and the ball went to USC. Abellanosa then made the first of UC’s many end game blunders as he fouled Giovanni Padillo giving the latter two free throws.
With only a few ticks left and UC leading by just a hairline, the pressure shifted to USC’s side. Padillo could have ended the game then, but he halved his charities to tie the game, 92-all, sending it to overtime.
Padillo made up for that bungled free throw during the most crucial point in the fourth period as he scored six points in the extra period with Paul Joven.
The extended period would have been easy for the USC Warriors as they had all the chances to score when UC gave up foul after foul that sent USC to the line 11 times. The Warriors, however, missed nine shots.
Ramirez, the all-time topscorer for USC, had 22 points but was overshadowed by Llantos’ huge output. Joven scored 13, while Padillo added 12.
Abellanosa, on the other hand, had 31 points for UC.
