Monday, September 29, 2008 UV makes 8th finals By Marian C. Baring Sun.Star Staff Reporter
THE University of the Visayas Green Lancers and the University of San Jose Recoletos will finally battle for the 2008 Cebu Schools Athletic Foundation Inc. (Cesafi) basketball title after sweeping their respective best-of-three semifinals series yesterday at the Cebu Coliseum.
The USJ-R Jaguars banked on Jabe Delfino’s heroics to lead the team to an 85-80 win over the University of Cebu Webmasters.
The Green Lancers, on the other hand, will be appearing in their eighth straight championships after manhandling a hapless University of San Carlos, 72-52.
In the first game, the Jaguars were surprised by the challenge of the Webmasters.
“They ran very fast and my players, while having the size advantage, hardly moved,” said USJ-R head coach Edito Salacot, who admitted to have been ecstatic for his first finals in the seniors division.
Two titles
Salacot has coached the Jaguars for three years after leading the high school team, to two championship titles.
According to Salacot, he credited to Delfino for the win for an all-around impressive performance.
“Delfino led that team. He was the hero of that game,” Salacot said.
However, it was Lyndon Gudez, who stole the show. After a listless season, Gudez finally made his presence felt topscoring for the Jaguars with 19 points, while peppery playmaker Armand Ponce, had 11 points, 11 assists and six rebounds.
UC’s main man, the 6-foot-9 Junmar Fajardo, had another breakout game of 30 points and 16 rebounds.
Meanwhile, the UV Green Lancers made little work of USC Warriors, who only managed to give up a fight in the first period.
This dampened the comeback of two-time MVP Enrico Llanto, who failed to be an asset to his team after having been benched because of injuries. Given very little playing time, Llanto was not able to build enough momentum to help USC out of the hole they dug.
USC managed to build up a 20-11 lead in the first quarter, which was sliced down to 20-17 at the end of the opening frame.
Meanwhile, UV head coach Elmer Cabahug said there is a lot of anticipation for their upcoming best-of-five finals match against USJ-R, which will be this Wednesday afternoon.
While he will be leaning on his veterans, Dennison, Von Lañete and Chris Diputado, he said that he has not run out of tricks for the coming finals.
“You have not seen everything yet. I will be unleashing my secret weapon in the finals,” said Cabahug.
