UC Webmasters shoot for first Cesafi title in 7years

Will there be a celebration and crowning of a new champion tonight or will there be a deciding Game 3 to cap another Cebu Schools Athletic Foundation Inc. (Cesafi) season?

After winning Game 1, the University of Cebu (UC) Webmasters are now primed to win their first Cesafi title since 2011 but the University of the Visayas (UV) Green Lancers won’t give up their title without a fight. Game 2 is at 5:15 p.m. today at the Cebu Coliseum.

Standing on the cusp of winning the title in the post-June Mar Fajardo-era, UC is all psyched up to drop another stunner that would give Garciano Puerto a fitting farewell when he leaves the Webmasters after the end of the school year.

Justine Dacalos, John Calvin Jabello, Joven Tagudin, Peter Paul Codilla and Mark Olmilla, members of the team that finished fifth last year, can finally brag of a title should they accomplish their goal.

It would be another milestone for coach Yayoy Alcoseba, whose surprise entry in the Webmasters camp last May may prove to be the right decision UC management made.

Alcoseba has turned the team, which solely depends on holdovers and a Cameroonian import, to a mean fighting machine in just two months’ time.

How the multi-titled basketball coach turned the erstwhile whipping boys to a championship caliber squad is nothing short of magical.

However, Gary Cortes and his coaching staff have burned the midnight oil trying to figure out what went wrong in Game 1.

The Green Lancers were simply outclassed by the Webmasters, who made better shots and crushed the boards harder on their way to dominate the entire game, 85-77.

It seems the Green Lancers might have underestimated the Webmasters, whom they defeated twice in the elimination round and who had to beat the University of San Jose-Recoletos Jaguars twice to make the finals.

The Lancers need to get to their old deadly form, shoot better, control the boards, distribute the ball and play better defense to force a Game 3. /