UV LANCERS PIN DOWN SWU COBRAS
UV to play against Jaguars on Thursday to determine top team to the semifinals
The defending champions University of the Visayas Green Lancers scored an emphatic 94-64 win that shoved the Southwestern University Cobras out of contention in the college division of the 2017 Cebu Schools Athletic Foundation Inc. (Cesafi) Basketball tournament at the Cebu Coliseum last night.
Although the Cobras showed some resistance, they were eventually overwhelmed by the superior strength of the Lancers, who moved closer to the No. 1 spot with only the current second placer University of San Jose-Recoletos (USJR) Jaguars standing in their way.
UV (9-1) will face the rested USJR (8-2) on Thursday, in a game that will determine who will clinch the No. 1 spot going to the semifinal round.
SWU was still in the thick of the game after the first quarter where they engaged the Lancers before yielding a two-point margin, 18-20.
However, UV dropped a 13-0 run at the start of the second period, to lead 33-18 at the 6:47 mark.
SWU answered with a 6-2 binge, but UV was not yet done as another 17-2 spurt put the Lancers ahead by 27, 53-26, at the end of the first half.
The Lancers felt comfortable with their huge lead and they failed to check the sudden heat of the Cobras at the start of the third period.
Shaquille Imperial’s quick seven points, a 4-point play and a triple, injected life into the Cobras who crept as close as 10 points, 55-65, at the 1:32 mark of the third.
In that span, SWU managed to sink six triples and Imperial scored 12 points while holding UV’s offense to only 12 points.
But suddenly the Cobras became complacent, and UV took advantage to score the last five points of the quarter, including a buzzer-beating lay-up by Sheldon Gahi off a steal, for a 70-55 lead entering the final frame.
UV carried the momentum into the fourth as they dropped a 15-1 blast that sapped all the energy of the Cobras who eventually yielded a 30-point defeat at the sound of the final buzzer.
Team skipper Joshue Segumpan went 7-of-12 from the field to lead UV scorers with 16 points. Jerome Napao added 12 and Rey Suerte and Ubert Villaceran finished with 10 points each for the Lancers. Imperial was the lone SWU player to score in double digits with 16 points.
The loss doused SWU’s hope to sneak into the Final 4 as it dropped to 4-7.
The University of Cebu Webmasters, meanwhile, clinched a slot to the semifinal round following a clinical 82-68 win over the Cebu Institute of Technology University (CITU) Wildcats in the opening game.
Cameroonian center Frederick Elombi Ngoh again had a monster game, scoring 24 points and grabbing 16 rebounds to help UC improve to 6-5.
John Jabello was the other UC player to finish in double digits while Mark Kong topscored for CITU with 15 points and seldom used Dante Simmons went 4-of-4 from the field for a 13-point finish as the Wildcats sank further to 1-10 in the team standings. /