Partner's Cup VFI-USJR stuns Gaisano Metro-UC

Coming off from a sorry loss to El Rancho-CIT last week, the VFI-USJR played smartly and humbled solo leader Gaisano Metro-UC, 102-92, even as the Skygo-SWU fashioned out a huge 94-75 victory over Guardo-Don Bosco yesterday in the Partner's Cup at the Cebu Coliseum.

The Jaguars did not allow 6-8 Junemar Fajardo from getting his place in the paint thus preventing the other UC gunners in the likes of Allain Abellanosa, Jonathan Canceran and Janssen Abella from doing their tricks.

Manny Gabas and John Malinao also took the better out of Fajardo by playing one-on-one defense. In fact, Gabas, who is sometimes swatted by Fajardo, topscored for the Jaguars with 21 points and Luther Justiniani won in his match-up against Abellanosa, scoring 20 points.

Gabas and Justiniani had a nice scoring back-up from Armand Ponce and Malinao, who scored 18 and 15 points, respectively.

The victory gave VFI a 3-1 win-loss record while Gaisano Metro-UC dropped to 4-1 win-loss record and to tie with UV but the Webmasters still holds the number one spot via the winner-over-the-other rule.

Fajardo scored 15 points to lead UC as Abatayo finished with 14 points and Abellanosa was limited to just 12 points.

Canceran and Abella had 10 points each for UC.

Earlier, Clifford Maguate finished with 23 points to pace Skygo-SWU while Alfred Belande and Eric Zanoria had 12 points apiece as the Cobras improved their win-loss record to 3-3.

Don Bosco, now with 1-4 win-loss record, was led by Jake Alferez with 14 points and Lester Sunga added 10 points.

The scores:

First Game:

Skygo-SWU (94) - Maguate 23, Belande 12, Zanoria 12, Canoigo 11, Gianchand 10, Villegas 7, Jalandoni 6, Litorja 4, Escober 3, Tragico 2, Cabahug 2, Yap 2

Guardo-Don Bosco (75) - Alferez 14, Sunga 10, Del Rosario 9, Calooy 8, Dela Rama 7, Coligado 7, Aldave 6, Pedros 6, Brigoli 4, Villaver 2, Abellanosa 1 Halftime: 50-26

Second Game:

VFI-USJR (102) - Gabas 21, Justiniani 20, Ponce 18, Malinao 15, Arpay 6, Antigua 5, Hatague 4, Villahermosa 4, Carilla 2, Bibera 2, Lapiz 2

Gaisano-UC (92) - Fajardo 15, Abatayo 14, Abellanosa 12, Canceran 10, Abella 10, Cipriano 6, Juliane 6, Flanco 6, Mamalias 6, Ceniza 3, Cadayong 2, Agas 2 Halftime: 46-42