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The fall from grace of the University of San Carlos (USC) Baby Warriors continued as they were upset by a resilient University of San Jose-Recoletos (USJ-R) Baby Jaguars squad, 89-86, in overtime, in the juniors division of the Cesafi basketball tournament on Sunday at the Cebu Coliseum.
League powerhouses University of the Visayas (UV) and the University of Cebu (UC) also kept their winning streaks going as they blew past their respective opponents in a jampacked Cesafi playdate, which had all the juniors’ division teams playing.
The Baby Lancers mercilessly speared the Cebu Eastern College (CEC) Dragons, 99-54, while the Baby Webmasters grabbed the solo leadership in the standings with their 109-94 victory over the Cebu Institute of Technology (CIT) Wildkittens.
UC is currently standing tall with a 3-0 (win-loss) mark while defending champion UV is not far behind at 2-0.
Arvie Cabanero led the UV onslaught with 13 points, while Glennson Ybanez added 12 markers in the lopsided rout, where the Baby Lancers pounced on the Dragons from the get-go.
On the other hand, the Baby Webmasters leaned on the fourth period heroics of rookie Roger Pogoy as the youngster scored 10 of his game-high 27 points in that stretch to repulse the hard-charging Wildkittens.
UC almost let a 17-point first period lead slip away as the Wildkittens waxed hot from behind the three-point arc, draining a total of 10 trifectas, to creep to within six in the final canto.
Pogoy, though, had the answer to every basket by CIT as he blew past his defenders and muscled his way inside for crucial baskets in the fourth period, where UC outscored their opponents, 33-20.
High-flying guard Marty Pearce was also spectacular, scoring 25 points, 15 of which came in the first period.
However, the story of the afternoon was the resiliency of the USJ-R, who came back from a 24-point deficit in the first half to notch its first win in three games.
Allan del Rosario led the Baby Jaguars with 33 points, none more important than the final three points of the match, where he converted a free-throw to give his squad an 87-86 lead with 13.5 ticks left.
He then turned a steal into an uncontested layup for the insurance basket with 6.6 seconds remaining in the ballgame.
USJ-R appeared to be headed for the win in regulation after Vern Figues made a free-throw to put his squad ahead by two, 74-72 with 13 seconds left.
Kim Nuneza, though, forced the game into the extra session, after he calmly converted on two freebies after he was fouled while grabbing the offensive board off two missed free-throws by Argel Saberon.
In the extra-session, the game went back and forth before del Rosario took control at crunch time, scoring 13 of his total output to help USJ-R barge into the win column.
