CEBU, Philippines - Winner Beef Loaf, manned by the CIT Wildcats, pulled off what is by far the biggest upset in the 5th CESAFI Partners' Cup after they beat the Ave Maria Sanctuary Park/USJ-R Jaguars, 81-74, even as Lion Tiger-UV met little resistance in a 75-49 demolition of Prime Asia-USC last Thursday night at the Cebu Colisuem.
Thus, Lion Tiger joined Gaisano Capital-UC on top of the leaderboard with identical 2-0 records.
It was the first victory by Winner Beef Loaf in two games and there were a lot to be given for that specially Chester Curso and Allan Dimco.
Curso topscored with 20 points, while Dimco, who ignited Winner's third quarter run with straight six points, finished with 11 along with Floyd Taboada and rookie Steve Castro.
After trailing at the break, 24-31, Winner waxed hot in the second half where they led almost all the way and after losing as many as seven points lead, 55-48, with six seconds left in the third, they grabbed it back midway in the final canto on Castro's perimeter jumper, 59-57, for good.
Banjo Capillar had 12 points for Ave Maria, which fell to 1-2.
Later in the night, Lion Tiger was oozing with confidence as early in the second period. After allowing Prime Asia to forge a 27-all deadlock, Lion Tiger roared with finesse to post as much as 23 points lead.
Phil Mercader and Niño Saycon led a well-balanced Lion Tiger offense with 11 and 10 points, respectively. Lion Tiger also succeeded in shutting down Prime Asia's top gunners in Michael Cantonao and Giovanni Padillo.
No player scored in double figures for Prime Asia, which suffered its second straight loss in as many starts. (FREEMAN)