Partners' Cup semifinals on today

CEBU, Philippines - Action shifts to higher gear as the semifinal round of the 5th CESAFI Partners' Cup begins today with the entry of UAAP's University of the Philippines (UP) Fighting Maroons at the USC-Main gym.

The UP Maroons will take on the USC Warriors-manned San Marino Corned Tuna in the 4 pm opener, right before Lion Tiger Aerosol goes up against the surging Rose Aquarius Merchandising in the main match at 5:30 pm.

The top seeded Gaisano Capital, which is tied with Lion Tiger with identical 10-2 win-loss records after the double round elimination, draws a bye and will test San Marino tomorrow in the main game of another double-header.

Gaisano Capital formally claimed the top spot by beating San Marino at the end of the elimination phase last Friday, 88-81.

San Marino finished with an even 6-6 slate in a tie with Rose Aquarius but grabbed the third spot also by virtue of a winner-over-the-other rule.

The UP Maroons opted to battle it out with the CESAFI squads as part of their rigid preperations for the upcoming UAAP season this July. They will try to determine their strength with the coming in of three foreign players who are yet to jell with their local teammates.

Meanwhile, in getting back the top spot, Gaisano Capital once again turned to 6-foot-9 behemoth Junemar Fajardo, who gamely responded by dropping in 29 points.

The big revelation, however, was offguard Roger Caytuna who had a breakout 16-point performance for Gaisano Capital.

Eleazar Armecin led San Marino with had 17 points followed by Bonifacio Guillena and Rene Pacquiao had 16 and 14 poits, respectively.

Earlier, Winner Beef Loaf took a graceful exit with a 97-91 overtime victory against Prime Asia Pawnshop in a non-bearing duel as both teams were already out of contention.

The scores

First game

Winner (97) - Castro 16, Curso 15, Taboada 14, Batiquin 12, Dimco 9, Taghoy 8, Felisario 6, D. Nazareno 4, Booc 4, Sanchez 3, nfante 2, Lopez 2, Brigoli 2

Prime Asia (91) - Hermosa 19, Cortes 14, Cantonao 12, Santos 8, Reyes 6, Magat 6, Duran 5, Padillo 5, Panerio 4, Bautista 4, Belangel 4, Otida 2, Codilla 2

Second game

Gaisano Capital (88) - Fajardo 29, Caytuna 16, Magallanes 9, Mohammad 9, Pogoy 8, Delos sntos 6, Bercede 4, Batua 3, Aranas 2, Labolabo 2

San Marino (81) - Armecin 17, Guillena 16, Pacquiao 14, Pineda 9, Hernando 8, Nalos 5, Ortuyo 4, Dalondonan 2, Arong 2, Ares 2, Bregondo 2