The unbeaten topseed USJ-R/Bibbo Hotdog and second-ranked UC/Aspac Bank take on separate rivals in the Reinforced CESAFI Partners Cup best-of-three semifinals tonight at the Mandaue City and Cultural Center.
Games today
(Mandaue City Sports and Cultural Complex)
7 pm UC/Aspac Bank vs. DBTC/Unilab-Alaxan
8:30 pm USJ-R/Bibbo vs. CIT/Metro Gaisano
The USJ-R Jaguars, who completed an eight-game elimination round sweep, will go up against the CIT/Metro Gaisano in the main game at 8:30 pm, right after UC-AsPac Bank collides with DBTC/Unilab-Alaxan in the 7 pm opener.
The Jaguars are expected to make life in the hardcourt miserable for ex-pro Gilbert Demape and his buddy Jerry Jaca, who have given the CIT/Metro Gaisano at least a chance to survive in the double round elimination where they finished as third seed with a 3-5 win-loss record.
The Bibbo Hotdog-backed Jaguars are a very cohesive team and there will be no surprise at all if they will sweep CIT and breeze into the finals without any glitch.
Even if they are playing without the injured Jabe Delfino, it doesn’t matter for the Jaguars because they are still loaded with a bunch of deadly offensive guns in the likes of Lyndon Gudez, Armand Ponce, Bobby Hatague, Jessmar Villahermosa Manny Gabas and Ranulfo Malinao.
It would be lucky for CIT/Metro to gain a new lease on life this time, nevertheless, the Wildcats are capable of pulling a major upset more so if the Jaguars will take them lightly.
In the other game, UC/Aspac Bank, which completed the classification roun with a decent 6-2 win-loss mark, are favored to march into the championship round because of the presence of 6-foot-8 tower Jun Mar Fajardo.
So far, no other player in the Reinforced Cup who piled up more than 200 points in the elimination than Fajardo, who banked a career-high and league record 50 points in his last game.
DBTC/Unilab, for its part, must be smarter this time as in its last two meetings against UC, the Bosconians always had an excellent game only to lost steam towards the end.