Baby Lancers draw first blood

CEBU, Philippines - The PTT Fuels-UV Baby Lancers scored a vengeful 86-71 victory over the Bibbo-CIT Wildkittens to gain a 1-0 upstart in their best-of-three semifinal series in the 4th CESAFI Partner's Cup yesterday at the Cebu Coliseum.

The Baby Lancers overcame a 29-40 halftime deficit when Gerald Legarde and Edcor Marata, Jr. combined for 21 points in a sizzling fourth quarter assault.

Vincent Mendoza, who topscored for the Baby Lancers with 20 points, was also part of the big run as well as the tandem of Francisco Arong and Eugene Nunez who finished with 18 points combined.

The Wildkittens were still on top at the start of the fourth period on a basket by Wilkins Sanchez but things suddenly went unfavorable for them when they lost star player Mark Jayven Tallo, who was carried on a stretcher when he accidentally slipped below the midcourt while backpedalling for a defensvie stance.

Tallo, who was brought to Chong Hua Hospital for treatment, was said to have been suffering from flu but wanted to play to help the team. Perhaps because of fatigue, he lost his balance and fell to the floor as he shivered for a while before he was laid on the stretcher by the Emergency Rescue Unit Foundation (ERUF) personnel.

When Tallo was out of the picture, the Wildkittens faltered down the stretch and never recovered as their outside shooting had also gone sour. In contrast, everyhting went well for the Baby Lancers who were in a hot streak.    

The scores

PTT-UV (86) - Mendoza 20, Marata 13, Legarde 12, Arong 10, Nunez 8, Ybanez 4, Regner 4, Linao 4, Suan 3, Undaloc 2, Smith 2, Dennison 2, Flores 2

Bibbo-CIT (71) - Sanchez 13, Nalos 11, Tallo 8, Tejam 7, Limalima 7, Batiquin 5, Jungoy 5, Bancale 5, Gera 4, Pamaong 2, Autor 2, Velez 2    (FREEMAN NEWS)