Wednesday, August 06, 2008 Baby Panthers lash back at Jaguars
FRESH off its opening day loss in the juniors division of the Cebu Schools Athletic Foundation Inc. (Cesafi) basketball competition, the University of Southern Philippines Foundation (USPF) Baby Panthers rebounded in style as it posted a convincing 107-65 win over the University of San Jose-Recoletos (USJ-R) Baby Jaguars yesterday at the Cebu Coliseum.
Wanting to make up for a rusty start after losing to University of Cebu (UC) Baby Webmasters last weekend, the Baby Panthers wasted no time as they went on to post a 10-point lead in the first period.
The young USJ-R team failed to impede its rampaging foes as the USPF squad of Coach Camilo Go, padded its lead further to 21 points in the second canto to finish the first half enjoying a 50-28 advantage.
Advancing
In the third period, the Panthers banked on James Ferraren to lead their cause. Ferraren, who scored a game-high 20 points, made 10 of these in the third period, which allowed the USPF squad to come up with a 71-47 cushion going into the deciding stanza.
Lacking in experience, the Baby Jaguars, pressured by the huge deficit, found themselves getting buried deeper with their own useless errors. The Jaguars were in complete disarray especially towards the end of the final canto as they gave up several ball possessions with careless handling, bad passes and equally bad shooting.
The Panthers capitalized on this and managed to build a 44-point advantage as every single member of the 15-man team were given a chance to make their contributions leading to USPF’s first win for the season.
Combination
Peter Cañete and Kenny Vargas combined for 27 points for USPF, while Anthony Arong, Jeofffrey Nudalo added 10 points each.
USPF improved with a 1-1 win-loss record, while USJ-R spiralled with a 0-2 slate after losing to University of the Visayas in their first outing.
