CEBU, Philippines - The fifth-ranked Aerosol-USPF Panthers lost a 15-point halftime lead but went strong in the windup to escape with a 67-63 victory over the twice-to-beat Enervon C-UC Webmasters in the 4th CESAFI Partner's Cup quarterfinals last Saturday at the Cebu Coliseum.
Earlier, the second seed San Marino Corned Tuna-USC Warriors downed Bibbo-CIT Wildcats, 78-68, to advance into the semifinals without any glitch.
The Panthers, thus, set up a sudden-death duel with the Webmasters next week for a semis berth.
It took the Webmasters three full quarters to wipe out a 17-32 deficit and grab the lead for the first time, 44-43, on two free throws by 6-foot-9 center June Mar Fajardo that capped a 10-3 run with three minutes left before the fourth period.
All throughout the final canto, the Panthers and the Webmasters engaged in a wild exchange of leads and broke five deadlocks until Dennis Ferraren pushed the Panthers back on top for the last time with a powerful move under the basket, 65-63, with only 34 seconds left to play.
After Moncrief Rogado missed an attempt that could have tied the count, USPF's Elvis Labares was intentionally fouled by Kelvin Juliane of UC in an effort to buy out time with six ticks remaining before the final buzzer.
After making his first shot, Labares bungled his second attempt but a defensive breakdown by Fajardo shattered UC's comeback hopes as it was the smaller Christian Tinoy who grabbed the offensive rebound. Tinoy then split his charities to settle the final tally.
Ellison Rivera topscored for the Panthers with 15 points, while Labares, the most veteran player in the team who anchored USPF to a sizzling 18-10 start, finished with 11 points.
Rogado, a former Panther, paced the Webmasters with 16 points followed by Fajardo with 12 markers.
Earlier, Giovanni Padillo led the Warriors with 16 points, while Sam Hermosa added 10.
The scores
First game
San Marino-USC (78) - Padillo 16, Hermosa 10, Cortes 9, Panerio 7, Cantonao 6, Santos 6, Duran 6, Bakker 4, Otida 3, Uy 2
Bibbo-CIT (68) - Curso 25, Dela Cerna 8, Sagmon 6, Ipang 5, Canete 5, Molero 4, Taboada 2, Resilla 2, Cabanero 2, Lopez 2
Second game
Aerosol-USPF (67) - Rivera 15, Labares 11, Durano 9, Dajalos 7, D. Ferraren 6, Bardillas 6, Avila 4, Sereno 2, Tinoy 2, Budalo 2, J. Ferraren 2, Filoteo 1
Enervon-UC (63) - Rogado 16, Fajardo 12, Pao 7, Juliane 7, Luceno 4, Miranda 4, Ampoon 3, Quilantang 2, Gomez 2, Mohammad 2, Enriquez 2, Ypil 2. – GGM (THE FREEMAN)