End of basketball dynasty UC dethrones UV to emerge as new king of CESAFI collegiate hoopdom

CEBU, Philippines - After a dominating nine-year reign by the University of the Visayas (UV) Green Lancers, the Cebu Schools Athletic Association, Inc. (CESAFI) cagedom has a new ruler and it also turned out to be the closest game in the finals for emerging hardcourt power University of Cebu (UC) Webmasters.

Flirting with disaster down by one point, 6-foot-9 behemoth Junemar Fajardo received a good entry pass from Quinton Brian Heruela and quickly sank the winning basket, 73-72, as the Webmasters finished off the Lancers in Game 4 to clinch the seniors basketbal title of the 2010 CESAFI season last night at the Cebu Coliseum.

UC closed the best-of-five finals series at 3-1, marking the collapse of a basketball empire built by UV since CESAFI's inception a decade ago.

What seemed to be an improbable 21-point deficit, 37-58, for the Lancers to overhaul at the end of the third period turned to be a nightmarish campaign for the Webmasters as Ralf Olivares gave UV its first lead in the, 70-69, with only 30.7 seconds left to play.

Heruela gave the Webmasters back the lead with a short jumper below the foul line, but Eman Calo sank his two charities to put the Lancers in front anew, 72-71, with 18.4 seconds remaining.

In the ensuing sequence, Heruela dished out the ball to Fajardo, who, despite under heavy pressure by smaller UV defenders, hit the game-clincher with four ticks left before the final buzzer. The pro-UC crowd rejoiced moments later when the Lancers missed a desperate heave as the gameclock expired.

The Webmasters started the fourth period with a 19-point lead when Adrian Lao made it 39-58, but since then the Lancers staged a mind-boggling rally ignited by Olivares, who scored eight straight points that was part of the 22-0 run before the Webmasters stopped the bleeding by nailing four points from the free throw line.

Given their big lead in the final period, the Webmasters decided to waste time first before making an attempt but it did not work on their favor due to the Lancers' solid defense, killer instinct and vast championship experience.

Fajardo, the runaway winner for the MVP plum, scored 32 points for the Webmasters while Kelvin Juliane finished 15 markers.

Heruela, an added boost to UC's campaign and Luigi Bercede, a vital component of the victory due to his pesky defense, banged in 11 and 10 points, respectively.

Calo and Olivares had 20 and 18 points, respectively, for the Lancers, whose nine-year title run in the CESAFI was finally halted and among all other rivals, only UC proved to be the toughest rival.

The Webmasters' first title was so sweet for Fajardo not just because of his heroics but it's because it is his final year in Cebu's premier school-based league.

The scores

UC (73) - Fajardo 32, Juliane 15, Heruela 11, Berc ede 10, Mohammad 4, Pao 1

UV (72) - Calo 20, Olivares 18, Mercader 9, Cincoflores 9, Lao 9, Silva 4, Saycon 2 Halftime: 34-29 (FREEMAN)