Day of reckoning

CEBU, Philippines - It's judgment day. One team with vast championship experience hopes to exorcise the ghost that haunted them last year, while the other seeks to end its 56-year title drought in the local hoopdom.

For one last time this season, the Southwestern University Cobras and the University of San Carlos Warriors will settle their unfinished business once and for all as they clash in the deciding match of their best-of-five finals series for the 14th Cebu Schools Athletic Foundation Inc. collegiate basketball crown tonight at the Cebu Coliseum.

The Cobras will try to erase the sting of their heart-breaking defeat in Game 5 against the University of the Visayas Green Lancers in the 2013 Finals, while the Warriors are eyeing to clinch their first ever title since 1958 in Cebu's premiere inter-school athletic league.

What makes their sudden-death duel more exciting is that they are even steven at three games apiece this year. Not only that, the finals turned out to be a tighly-knit games with neither side could score more than 60 points so far.

The Cobras  broke the ice of the series, 59-55, but the Warriors avoided themselves from plunging into a deep 0-2 hole with a vengeful 53-46 victory in Game 2.

Southwestern University slitehered back with finesse to take Game 3, 60-49, but USC bounced back in decisive fashion, 56-48, to extend the series into its full route.

One thing that the Cobras should take note is that almost all of the Warriors' victories lie on the broad shoulders of USC's versatile Cameroon import Shooster Olago and his buddy from Congo in Espoir Toyambi. They clearly outfoxed and outclassed their SWU counterparts Landry Sanjo and Bendley Valdor in the four games of the series.

Therefore, the edge by the Cobras coming from their local players have been off-setted by the Olago-Toyambi tandem.

Skeptics believe that because of their championship experience especially the coaching magic of Raul "Yayoy" Alcoseba, the Cobras have the edge in this do-or-die match.

In addition to that, the likes of Mark Javyen Tallo, Adams Mohammed, Bernie Bregondo, Daryl Goloran, Melvin Holper and Sanjo are also aching to shot back to life and redeem themselves following their painful defeat to UV last year. The Warriors must expect all of them to come out on fire today.

But USC has a dreaded one-two punch in Olago and Toyambi that is backed up by a slew of hard-fighting locals in Dolan Adlawan, Victor Rabat, Christian Laude, Nico Magat, Charles Pepito and Kiefer Lim as they try to end the Warriors' nearly six-decade spell.

In the end though, it all boils down as to which team has the bigger heart and stronger desire to win. That is something that the fans must wait and see. (FREEMAN)