CESAFI All-Star Games: East sweeps West

CEBU, Philippines – By design or not, both the collegiate and secondary divisions of the CESAFI East vs. West All-Star Games last Sunday had the East sweeping the West by three points at the Cebu Coliseum.

The East defeated the West, 70-67 in the collegiate level, while the East also pulled off an 82-79 win over the West in the secondary division.

However, the West had its own share of honor and distinction as UC's Kelvin Juliane won the 3-point shootout and SWU's Arrd Evan Diango emerged as the H-O-R-S-E trick game champion after besting UV's Eman Calo in the finals.

The East raced from 11 points down, 49-60, late in the fourth period anchored on five of the seven players from defending champion University of the Visayas (UV) Green Lancers and came back with a 14-0 run to grab the upperhand, 63-60, with still 4:47 left in the contest.

It was UV's Ralf Olivares who gave back the lead to the East, 61-60, before Amores padded it to three.

From thereon, neither team could lead by more than three points.

Down by three in the last few seconds, West player Michael Cantonao of the USC Warriors missed a desperate three-point attempt that could have possibly sent the game into a stalemate.

Phil Mercader, one of the reliable cogs for the UV Lancers, led the East with 14 points, while Adrian Lao and Jerome Silva added 11 and 10 points, respectively

Six-foot-nine giant Junemar Fajardo of the UC Webmasters and Cantonao had 10 points each for the West.

Named into the elite Mythical Five were Mercader, Lao, Silva, Cantonao and Fajardo. (FREEMAN)