CESAFI Final Four battle in juniors division set today

CEBU, Philippines — The Final Four showdown in the juniors division of Cebu Schools Athletic Foundation, Inc. (CESAFI) Season 25 basketball tournament will finally push through today (Monday, December 8) at the Cebu Coliseum.

And it will be without the University of Cebu Lapu-Lapu and Mandaue (UCLM) Baby Webmasters.

Without elaborating further, commissioner Felix “Boy” Tiukinhoy, Jr. confirmed to The Freeman via Viber message that the CESAFI Board has sustained the Technical Committee’s December 5 ruling forfeiting the five won games of UCLM as penalty for violating the league’s ground rules when their point guard Noe Lingoste played in another tournament while the current season is ongoing.

Instead of being the top seed with an 8-2 win-loss record, UCLM was relegated to a distant ninth place in the final standings with a 3-7 slate.

UCLM immediately filed an appeal hoping that the CESAFI would reconsider its decision but to no avail as per Tiukinhoy.

With UCLM out of the picture, the four-time defending champions Sacred Heart School-Ateneo de Cebu (SHS-AdC) Magis Eagles assumed the No.1 spot and will play against the fourth-ranked Cebu Institute of Technology-University (CIT-U) Baby Wildcats in the semifinals at 12:30 p.m. today.

The UC-Main Baby Webmasters, the biggest beneficiary of the forfeiture of UCLM’s games that saw them leapfrogging from fifth to second spot in the leaderboard, will go up against the Cebu Eastern College (CEC) Dragons in the other semis matchup at 2 p.m. 

Both the Magis Eagles and the UC-Main Baby Webmasters enjoy a twice-to-beat advantage.