San Marino stuns Gaisano in Enervon Partner’s Cup

CEBU, Philippines - The San Marino Tuna/CIT-U Wildcats kicked off its semifinal campaign with a 101-79 upset of the Gaisano Capital South-UC Webmasters in the Enervon CESAFI Partner's Cup basketball tournament the other night at the Cebu Coliseum.

San Marino Tuna, however, faces an uphill battle next as it takes on the undefeated Prime Asia Lending-UV Lancers today at 5:45 pm.

With four players stepping up bigtime, things could never go wrong for San Marino Tuna, which coasted to         a commanding 53-33 lead at halftime. Gaisano Capital fought back with savvy to pull within just six points, 60-66, with two minutes left in the third period but that was the best it could muster.

Vincent Menguito topped San Marino with 26 points, Joshua dela Cerna banged in 19 markers, while Allan Dimco and Floyd Taboada each scored 18 points underscoring their balanced offensive.

Cameroonian Arnud Noah scattered 24 points for Gaisano Capital before being thrown out of the game with two technical fouls at the final 21.6 seconds of the contest. For that, Noah will be out of comission when Gaisano battles the Cebu Landmasters-USC Warriors at 4:00 this afternoon.

Kido Cabrera finished with 14 points, while Jan Auditor and Gerald Ampoon had 23 points combined for Gaisano Capital, which needs to beat the Cebu Landmasters in its next assignment to stay in contention.

The scores

San Marino Tuna (101) - Menguito 26, Dela cerna 19, Dimco 18, Taboada 18, Eboña 4, Taghoy 4, Batiquin 3, Graf 3, Pono 2, Brigoli 2

Gaisano Capital (79) - Noah 24, Cabrera 14, Auditor 12, ampoon 11, Yburan 9, Miranda 4, Misa 3. Halftime: 53-33  (FREEMAN)