San Marino pounds Raphael’s Cafe

CEBU, Philippines - The San Marino Tuna/CIT-U Wildcats bucked away a mounting pressure from the listless Raphael's Cafe/USJ-R Jaguars and unleashed their ultimate firepower in the fourth quarter to score an 89-67 rout in the Enervon CESAFI Partner's Cup 2013 men's basketball tournament last night at the Cebu Coliseum.

Meanwhile, the Coliseum will be left vacant on Thursday as the game of the Partner's Cup will be held in San Remigio north of Cebu featuring the Prime Asia Lending-UV Lancers, who will gun for their ninth win in a row when they collide against the Cebu Landmasters-USC Warriors.

San Marino Tuna kept on attacking the basket all the way from the first period up to the fourth, but they seemed to have slowed down a bit in the third where they led by only nine, 61-52.

Raphael's Cafe became more productive in the third period, with pointguard Wilkins Sanchez scoring six straight points. It was Rex Villarosa, however, who shone the bightest by coming up with a 7-0 blitz on his own to pull the USJR Jaguars-manned squad to within just three points,50-53, with still 2:31 left in that stretch.

San Marino though quickly regained its bearing in the fourth quarter when their key players already played together. That enabled them to whip up a furious offensive storm to post as much as 20 points lead in the closing minutes of the contest to break the backs of Raphael's Cafe.

Allan Dimco and Vincent Menguito paced San Marino with 15 and 14 points, respectively. John Graf added a dozen markers as they improved their win-loss record to 4-5.

Raphael's Cafe, on the other hand, is still searching for that very elusive win after dropping nine straight games, by far the worst in the seven-year history of the Partner's Cup. (FREEMAN)