CEBU, Philippines — The University of Cebu (UC) Webmasters and the University of San Jose-Recoletos (USJ-R) Baby Jaguars, both armed with twice-to-beat advantage as top seeds, knocked out their respective foes to reach the Finals of the Cebu Schools Athletic Foundation, Inc. (CESAFI) Season 24 men’s basketball tournament without any glitch on Thursday night, November 28, at the Cebu Coliseum.
The Webmasters dug deep at crunch time before terminating the USJ-R Jaguars, 58-53, to barge into the championship round for the third straight year under the guidance of coach Kernn Sesante.
Dictating the pace of the match since taking an early 21-10 lead, the Webmasters passed through some scary moments when the Jaguars staged a daring fightback to seize the upper hand, 50-48, in the final three minutes of the down to the wire battle.
However, Charles Libatog made back-to-back crucial hits as the Webmasters responded with an 8-0 spurt to breathe a sigh of relief with a 56-50 edge in the dying seconds.
Libatog topscored for the Webmasters with 11 points on a perfect 5-of-5 shooting from the field laced with four rebounds, one assist and a steal.
The Jaguars threatened for the last time at 53-56 on a 3-pointer by Emman Suarez as Luther Leonard calmly sank a pair of free throws with only 5.3 ticks left in the gameclock to wrap things up for the Webmasters.
It’s a different story though in high school play as the Julius Cadavis-mentored Baby Jaguars ousted the UC Baby Webmasters, 63-56, to bolster their bid of ending their 22-year title drought.
Clark Benedick Candia led four Baby Jaguars in double figures with 12 points, eight rebounds, one assist and one block.
J Lord Pepito and Shaun Keizer Grava each scored 11 and combined for 14 rebounds while Jan Francis Petilos produced a double-double of 10 points and 10 rebounds laced with three assists, two steals and two blocks for the Baby Jaguars, who opened the final period with an 8-0 blitz to rip the game apart with a 57-61 advantage.
The Baby Jaguars then quelled a spirited endgame challenge by the Baby Webmasters to walk away with a seven-point triumph. — (FREEMAN)