THE University of Cebu Webmasters beat the hard-fighting University of Southern Philippines Foundation (USPF) Panthers, 86-79, in the Cebu Schools Athletic Foundation Inc. Basketball tournament at the Cebu Coliseum Tuesday night.
Two nights after collapsing under pressure against the powerhouse University of the Visayas Green Lancers, the Webmasters seemed headed for a similar result.
However, thanks to an inbound blunder committed by Mil Anthony Linao, the Webmasters survived and got their fifth win.
Despite their height disadvantage, the Panthers did not give up, and were more accurate from the field, shooting 29 of 50, while UC was 29 of 59.
Junmar Fajardo, who scored a season-high 43 points, scored 14 in UC’s 15-6 run early in the fourth to give UC its biggest lead of the game, 72-64 with 5:50 left.
But the Panthers were quick to even the score two minutes later from Fritz Dajalos’s six points and Elwin Durano’s two free throws.
That was the last time USPF managed to even the game as Fajardo scored six more points to keep UC afloat.
Fajardo also added 20 rebounds, five steals and three blocks and Kevin Julianne finished with 20 points for UC.
Dajalos topscored for USPF with 18 points, and Linao added 14.