LAST year’s high school semifinalists took their opponents by storm and posted dominating wins in the 2014 Cebu Schools Athletic Foundation Inc. (Cesafi) basketball tournament yesterday at the Cebu Coliseum.
The Cebu Eastern College Dragons rebounded from a debut loss with a 77-44 mastery over the Don Bosco Technological Center Greywolves; the University of the Visayas Baby Lancers survived a third quarter uprising of the University of San Jose-Recoletos Baby Jaguars for a 77-64 win; and the University of San Carlos Baby Warriors rallied hard in the third to beat University of Cebu Baby Webmasters, 61-49.
The Baby Lancers needed the three-point shooting of the much-improved Raul Jancork Cabahug to shake off the Baby Jaguars.
UV struggled in the opening half as USJ-R leaned on Richmon Lapinid and Bryan Divinagracia.
But after Lapinid took USJ-R closer at 50-48, a minute and 43 seconds into the fourth period, Cabahug ignited a 9-0 run by sinking two triples for a 59-48 UV lead.
Theo Joshua Flores scored a game-high 25 points, while John Carl Escalona had a double-digit performance of 15 points and 10 rebounds. He also had four assists and two steals. Cabahug finished with nine points, all from the 3-point area, before fouling out at the 4:15, to help UV improve to 2-0 start.
Lapinid had 18 points, Divinagracia made 16 and Marmar Rubas scored 10 as USJ-R dropped to 0-2.
The Baby Warriors meanwhile had a hard time dealing with the busy Baby Webmasters.
UC had USC by the neck after a low-scoring first half but lost steam and gave up a lot of turnover points as the Warriors played full court pressure defense midway of the third period.
A 13-1 blast in the last 3;45 of the third gave the Baby Warriors total control of the game.
Despite its inferior line-up, UC managed to give USC some scare in the fourth period but with only Darrel Shane Menina as the lone consistent scorer for coach Jover Samonte, the Baby Webmasters bowed to the mightier Baby Warriors.
Jean-Jacque Antigua finished with a game-high 20 points on top of seven rebounds, one assist and three steals. (RCM)