CEBU, Philippines - The University of the Visayas (UV) Baby Lancers escaped with a 65-60 victory over Sacred Heart School-Ateneo de Cebu (SHS-AdC) Magis Eagles to forge a rubbermatch in their best-of-five finals series in the juniors division of the 11th Cebu Schools Athletic Foundation, Inc. (CESAFI) basketball season last night at the Cebu Coliseum.
The deciding Game 5 will be played on Tuesday yet.
The Baby Lancers protected an 11 point-lead, 52-41, at the final 6:04 mark of the contest. From there onwards, they never looked back despite several attempts by the Magis Eagles to stage a last ditch rally.
Nelson Peralta's six straight points pushed the Baby Lancers on top again by 11 points, 58-47, with less than three minutes to play.
The Magis Eagles retaliated with a 12-2 run, eight of them coming from Henric Dawn Ochea, but that was the best the Magis Eagles could muster though as Ron Marvis Dennison and Andres Paul Desiderio swiftly came to UV's rescue by scoring the final eight points.
Desiderio paced the Baby Lancers with 18 points, even as Peralta and Dexter Lucero chipped in 11 points apiece.
Ochea topscored for the Magis Eagles with 18 points followed by Julius Cadavis with 10 markers.
The missing link for the Magis Eagles was Jari Igna, who was held off to a paltry three points. The likes of Patrick Go, Maverick Suarez and Dave Yu were also shackled by UV's solid defense.
The scores
UV (65) - Desiderio 18, Peralta 11, Lucero 11, Dennison 9, Undaloc 7, Ugang 6, Oche 3
SHS-AdC (60) - Ochea 18, Cadavis 10, Sing 9, Suarez 5, Go 5, Asilum 5, Lim 3, Igna 3, Yu 2 (FREEMAN)