Green Lancers, Webmasters rivalry heats up today

Game today: Cebu Coliseum 5:15 p.m. – UV vs. UC (Game 1 College Finals)

Drama and intense basketball action are expected to unfold when the University of the Visayas (UV) Green Lancers faces the University of Cebu (UC) Webmasters for the 2017 Cebu Schools Athletic Foundation Inc. (Cesafi) College Basketball title best-of-3 championship series at the Cebu Coliseum starting at 5:15 p.m. this afternoon.

A lot can be told about the budding rivalry between the UV and UC, much more antipathy between its coaches Gary Cortes and Yayoy Alcoseba, respectively.

This season, UV defeated UC twice, and even though they were not “very dominating victories,” they created a sort of plot that will definitely add highlights to this short championship series.

UV is seeking its 12th crown. For Cortes, it may be a back-toback title since taking over the Green Lancers’ helm in November 2015. UC is eyeing its third title and Alcoseba, also his third in Cesafi.

Affixed to that was the incident last season when the Alcoseba-mentored Southwestern University Cobras ,who scored 13 straight wins, were booted out of the finals after losing to UV by 12 points in the semifinal round.

With no way for the Cobras to recover, UV marched to the finals, facing the No. 4 elimination-round finisher University of San Carlos Warriors, whom they defeated, 3-1, in the best-of-5 series.

SWU fans took it hard upon UV and bashed Cesafi for the “back-to-zero semifinal format” that made the Cobras’ efforts in the elimination round go for naught.

This paved the way for the new format of giving an automatic finals slot to the team who could sweep the elimination round assignments, which the UV Baby Lancers enjoyed. The No. 1 and No. 2 finishers also gained a twice-to-beat incentive in the semifinal round, as what UV and the University of San Jose-Recoletos Jaguars enjoyed.

USJ-R lost to UC twice, while UV needed just one game to eliminate USC to set up a finals showdown.

Cortes has never been so excited to play in the finals like this before.

“I have never been so excited to play in the finals. We both need to tighten our belts and brace for what will happen inside the court. Anyway, we will do our very best to play well-oiled basketball on both ends of the court. We’ll just pray that the players will respond to our true commitments towards the school we represent,” Cortes told SunStar Cebu yesterday.

“As much as we have strat- egies and game plans, I would rather emphasize more on how the boys should focus on their role and be effective. If they can do this, then everything will fall into place. This is a David and Goliath situation. We just have to draw out our slingshot,” Alcoseba said.

Alcoseba compared his Webmasters to David, who defeated Goliath with a single shot with a slingshot.

Although UC has the league’s most productive player Frederick Elombi, who averaged 23.3 points and 14.6 rebounds through the semifinal games, it’s the superior line-up and deeper bench of the Green Lancers that the multi-titled coach was worried about.

The backcourt combination of Liberian Bassieru Sackor, Monic Soliva, Jerome Napao, Jayson Balabag, Ted Saga and Michael Maestre has produced for UV a combined 41.2 points, 29.3 rebounds and 3.2 blocks per game. Its back- court combination of Rey Suerte, Joshue Segumpan, Tristan Albina and Sheldon Gahi gave the Lancers a 39.2, 11.7 assists and 6.6 assists per game.

UV’s rookies Jancork Cabahug, Ubert Villaceran, Josier Hassan and Jiesel Tarrosa are also trust-worthy if given a moment to help.

On top of this, UV shot better at 47.88 percent, while UC shot at 44.70 percent from the field, 23.15 and 56.41 percent to 42.98 at the free throw line. UV also enjoyed slight advantage in rebound, 48.0 to 46.7; in assists, 21.5 to 18, and blocks 5.5 to 5.3, while UC leads with 14.5 steals per game to 13.6 of UV.

In all of its 13 games, UV scored an average of 85 points per game, placing them No. 2 in terms of points made, while No. 2 in defense, allowing opponents to an average 68 points a game, while UC is 3rd with 75 points made and 70 points allowed. /