#USC #57 #Shooster

The CESAFI or the Cebu Schools Athletic Foundation, Inc. has a new collegiate basketball champion this year, and just like the high school championship, this series was full of drama, twists and thrills. After 57 long years, the University of San Carlos has finally won a Cebu collegiate basketball championship, nipping the University of the Visayas, 3-2, in the best-of-five finals series.

The biggest story would have to be the 57 years of waiting for another championship. Many of us weren’t even born yet when USC won their last title in 1958. In fact, only the more “seasoned” of the basketball fans might even remember how the Warriors won the championship. Tops here is Julian Macoy who still holds the record for the most number of points scored in a single game at 126 points. He’s definitely still around and is a consultant of USC after having spent two years as head coach. His name was among the first to be called out by this year’s players and he hugged the trophy just as tightly as any other member of the team. The championship was so huge that a local daily gave them front page treatment, and this wasn’t in the sports section but on the main newspaper’s front page. This could be a first in the history of the local print media industry. So if you want to land on the front page of a local news daily, sit around for more than 57 years before winning another championship.

The other big story from this championship series would have to be the impact it had on social media. Acting like a real-time media outlet, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram were flooded with all sorts of stories about the championship. The games on their own were just a fraction of the several issues discussed and commented on by netizens/CESAFI followers, supporters, fans and bashers, too. The highlight of all would have to be the hard foul of UV’s Jun Manzo that was reportedly the cause for the hospitalization of USC’s super import Shooster Olago. Was it a punch? An elbow? A forearm? Was it deserving of a “thrown out of the game” call by the referees? These and so much more flooded Facebook seconds and days after Game 5 with both sides hurling all sorts of accusations and defenses, depending on whose one were on. But then again everything has a happy ending, don’t they? And so through Facebook, private messages (PM) and a personal chat, a picture of Olago and Manzo in Olago’s hospital room was splashed in Facebook when the two “kissed and made up” via “I’m sorry bro” from Manzo who is ironically dubbed as “the hitman.” This picture outshone the photo of “Maco” Maconocido putting a clamp on Jun Manzo’s head and the picture/story of the number of stitches needed for Manzo’s cut coming off an Olago elbow. But this wasn’t all. Hundreds of pictures were also posed on Facebook, making it the best source of real-time news (better than the traditional print media). Fans posed with their favorite players (and coaches). The FB statuses of supporters were all about the series. USC fans were obviously whooping it up, while UV fans were distraught but always encouraging the team to bounce back. We in the print media suddenly realized we were out-scooped and out-photo’d by netizens who had a platform that we didn’t. By the time The Freeman and all the Cebu dailies broke the news about the championship, it was “not so fresh” news anymore as far as netizens were concerned.

And how can we forget about Game 5? Games One through Four was a simple see-saw and exchange of wins. The see-saw had to stop somewhere, and for awhile, I thought UV was set to reverse the trend, controlling the game with 17-6, 30-25 and 46-40 leads at the end of the first three quarters. Their biggest lead was 12 points at 40-28 in the third quarter. At the end of the day, it all boiled down to who wanted the championship more (or the most). It looked like the 57-year old wait was more telling as a motivating factor for Shooster Olago / USC than a UV team that had won ten CESAFI titles since the league was re-engineered in 2000. We must also remember that the Lancer tradition of basketball supremacy even dates back to the pre-CESAFI days.

Olago stood out as the player who wanted it the most; more than anyone else from both sides combined as he displayed what hunger for a title was all about. In a game that UV controlled and where the locals of both sides weren’t hitting their mark (except for UV’s Leonard Santillan in the first half), Olago rose above everyone else and just dominated. Down 40-46 at the start of the fourth quarter, Olago single-handedly took over the game, scoring 10 straight points after a Kiefer Lim floater made it 42-46. Two Olago free throws tied the count at 46-all and had the USC crowd on its feet. A thunderous tomahawk dunk gave USC a 48-46 lead, had the USC crowd going berserk and sent a “game over” signal to the Lancers. Olago’s 10-0 blitz made it 52-46. Steve Akomo scored UV’s first points of the fourth quarter to cut it to 48-52 but it was all USC from there. As if on cue, the Lancers seemed to crumble to the pressure and suddenly lost the poise and gutsy play that gave them a 12-point lead earlier in the first half and that gave them control of the first three quarters of the game. When the fourth quarter started, I actually had an inkling that UV would wrap it up with momentum and tradition on its side. But Olago would have none of this. Nobody came close to his stats of 26 points and 19 rebounds. He simply went into overdrive and outdid himself and everybody else. Although a trip to the hospital wasn’t part of the script, it might have been the best way to make him recover from his superman-type job.

Kudos to both USC and UV for a great series; to the crowds that supported their teams, and to the CESAFI for another great season. Here’s looking forward to a bigger, better and brighter CESAFI 2016.