THE Southwestern University (SWU)-Phinma Cobras continued to be a thorn on the side of the University of the Visayas (UV) as they ousted the Green Lancers from title contention and barged into the finals of the Minglanilla Mayor's Cup Inter-Collegiate Christmas League with an 87-80 win in their knockout game at the Minglanilla Sports Complex on Thursday night, December 12, 2019.
The win gave SWU-Phinma the last ticket to the finals where they would be facing off against the unbeaten University of Southern Philippines Foundation Panthers. The two squads square off on Friday night, December 13.
UV was relegated to playing for third place honors against the University of San Jose-Recoletos Jaguars.
It was a hard-fought game that saw UV pull to within 56-57 even without head coach Gary Cortes who got ejected from the game for getting into a heated argument with the game officials.
However, the Cobras -- the recently-crowned Cebu Schools Athletic Foundation Inc. (Cesafi) champions -- were not fazed and retaliated with nine straight points sparked by Senegalese stud Lamine Thiam and Ramish Alforque to push SWU-Phinma ahead, 69-60.
UV tried to rally several times in the fourth canto but SWU-Phinma held them at bay until the game’s final buzzer.
Thiam finished the game with 21 points and got ample support from William Polican who had 13 points and Red Cachuela, who punched in 12.
THE SCORES
SWU (87) - Lamine 21, Polican 13, Cachuela 12, Imperial 8, Bilao 8, Alforque 6 Roncal 5, Evardo 4, Sanchez 2.
UV (80) - Coulibaly 20, Butohan 11, Tarrosa 11, Maestre 9, Cabahug 7, Pepito 6, Cometa 6, Delator 5, Saga 3, Gellacone 2