Battle for semifinals ticket unfolds today

The top four teams in the CESAFI-sanctioned Partner's Cup will seek for an outright semifinals berth today against separate rivals at the Cebu Coliseum.

Having the twice-to-beat advantage, the four seeded teams namely VFI-University of San Jose-Recoletos (USJ-R) Jaguars), Metro Gaisano-University of Cebu (UC) Webmaster, CDO Hamburger-University of the Visayas (UV) Lancers and Hapee-University of San Carlos (USC) Warriors need only to win today to march into the semifinals.

In the event the topseeds will sweep their assignments tonight, the semifinals will start on Tuesday with VFI-USJ-R going up against Hapee-USC while Metro Gaisano-UC will have a harder task against CDO Hamburger-UV in a best-of-three series.

VFI-USJ-R, a surprise leader making it into the top via a 77-72 upset of CDO-UV will be led by its key players in the likes of Armand Ponce, Luther Luke Justiniani, Manny Gabas, Lyndon Gudez, John Malinao and Bobby Hatague.

Marching on to the semifinals will be a lighter burden for Metro Gaisano-UC against Guardo-Don Bosco. Metro Gaisano-UC is powered by 6-8 Junemar Fajardo and Allain Abellanosa along with Jonathan Canceran, Jared Kane Abatayo, Salvador Cadayong, Janssen Abella and Marvin Ceniza.

Meanwhile, the UV-manned CDO Hamburger relies on Rino Berame, Morsie Akad, Jaysar Esperat, Von Harry Lanete, Harlow Chad Villanil and Eduardo Arda, among others.

The likes of Niño Ramirez, Ryan Carlo Padayao, Jomel Igao, James Tagalog and Paul Joven are the top guns for Hapee-USC when it bids for the semifinals against the unpredictable Skygo-Southwestern University.