THE University of Southern Philippines Foundation Baby Panthers escaped with a thrilling 80-78 win over the Don Bosco Greywolves in the 2019 Cesafi high school basketball tournament at the Cebu Coliseum on Tuesday, October 1.
Undersized big man Jack “Baby Shaq” Suello played with heart and grit, and powered his way to 17 points and 14 rebounds -- 13 of which came on the offensive end.
Kyle Ochavo also had 10 points including a triple that capped off a late 8-0 run that put USPF ahead, 78-69, with exactly two minutes to go.
However, disaster almost struck for the Baby Panthers as they threw up hurried shots that missed, which Don Bosco eagerly took advantage of, with Vincent Escobido scoring a putback that pulled them to within one, 77-78, with 1:02 to go.
But USPF proved to be the steadier squad as Diether Soco found an opening in the paint, faked off his defender and scored an easy two to raise the Baby Panthers’ lead to three, 80-77.
Don Bosco still had a chance to come closer or even tie the game after Jayson Almero got fouled with 6.1 ticks left. The guard made the first, intentionally missed the second but Soco was quicker to the ball and grabbed the rebound.
The USPF big man was fouled with just 2.6 seconds to go and proceeded to miss both free-throws. But with no more timeouts left, Don Bosco’s Rauric Panimdim was forced to heave a halfcourt shot that was way off to hand USPF the win which improved their record to 4-2.
Don Bosco, on the other hand, fell to 3-3.