CEBU, Philippines – The University of Cebu (UC) Webmasters ended their campaign in the Philippine Collegiate Champions League (PCCL) with a fourth place finish after bowing to De la Salle University 71-82 in the battle for third at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium yesterday.
The Webmasters, champions of the Cebu Schools Athletic Foundation Inc. (CESAFI) basketball tournament were probably still reeling from a crushing 54-74 loss to Ateneo de Manila University in the semifinals.
In the game against La Salle, UC collapsed in the second quarter and found themselves in a very deep hole during the third canto making it hard to dig out of it.
UC was down by as many as 35 points, 31-66, during the third as its defense faltered.
The Webmasters tried to come back in the fourth quarter and even came to within nine points, 69-78, with two minutes left to play, but could not sustain the rally as there wasn't enough time left.
Maybe the Webmasters can look back to that scoring drought starting from early in the second period up to the end of third and wish something better happened.
It was 6-9 tower of power Junemar Fajardo, who tried to pull the Webmasters back on their feet in the final canto with the support of Edward Pao and Kelvin Juliane.
UC outscored DLSU, 40-12 in the 4th quarter, but that wasn't enough to offset a huge deficit.
Luigi Bercede scored the fist bucket of the game, 2-0 and the Webmasters led twice -- 6-4 and 12-11 before the embarrassing meltdown after the Archers snatched the lead, 13-12 and pulled away to a 27-point halftime lead, 48-21.
The third place finish earned the wards of coach Roel Gomez, the P50,000 worth of gift certificates.
Sam Marata top scored for the archers and was named the best player of the ballgame with his 18 points, seven rebounds and seven assists. (FREEMAN)