Cebu City Sharks on a slump again

After pulling off a breakthrough win over the Batangas City Athletics to snap out of their four-game jinx, the Cebu City Sharks found themselves on a slump again.

Still reeling from a stinging loss to the Tigers of Davao Occidental, the Sharks fell in another pit, this time at the hands of the GenSan Warriors, 6670, in the 2018 Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League (MPBL) Anta Datu Cup last Thursday night at the SRTRIKE Gymnasium in Bacoor, Cavite.

Cebu plunged to its second straight setback and sixth overall in seven games to further languish down the cellar together with the Pasig Pirates who are still listless in six starts.

It was another painful defeat for the Sharks, who chiseled away a 12-point deficit in the final three minutes of the contest only to scuttled by the endgame heroics of GenSan’s Leomer Losentes.

Trailing 50-62 with 3:09 left to play, Patrick Jan Cabahug and Garex Puerto sparked a searing 10-1 blitz to vault the Casino Activebacked Sharks within 6163 with only 40 seconds remaining.

Losentes, however, doused cold water on Cebu’s hot rally by knocking in a booming 3-pointer to give GenSan a 66-61 breather, 24 seconds to go.

The Sharks came threateningly close for the last time at 66-68 on a jump shot by Rhaffy Octobre with 11 ticks left as in the ensuing sequence Losentes calmly sank his presscure-packed charities in the last five seconds to seal GenSan’s four-point escape.

Losentes scattered 15 points, five rebounds and three assists for GenSan. Delmar Mahaling also scored 15 on top of eight boards, while John Orbeta nailed 13 markers as the Warriors nailed their only second win in six games.

Cabahug was the lone bright spot with 21 points and three rebounds for the Sharks, who will try to check their second phase of slide when they invade Imus Bandera on September 4 at the Imus Sports Complex in Cavite.—