Ian Tagapan of University of San Carlos fakes off University of the Visayas’ Jan Soliva in their semifinal match of the 16th Cesafi men’s basketball tournament at the Cebu Coliseum last night.
(CDN PHOTO/LITO TECSON)
In what can be considered one of the wildest semifinal games in the colorful history of the league, the University of San Carlos (USC) Warriors booked a return ticket to the championship round as they came all the way back from an 11-point deficit to stun the University of the Visayas (UV) Green Lancers, 72-65, in the final day of the semifinals in the 16th Cesafi men’s basketball tournament last night at the Cebu Coliseum.
USC trailed by 34-45 early in the third but came roaring back in the fourth and took the lead for good with an 8-0 run capped by a transition bucket by Conrad Catapusan and a hook shot by Scotty Ntumba.
UV last threatened at 64-65 after Rey Suerte drilled a triple with 1:55 remaining. But USC did not flinch and placed the win in the bag with a pull-up jumper at the keyhole by Ian Tagapan and a lay-up by Ntumba that put them up, 69-64, with just 26.9 seconds left in the match.
Victor Rabat led the Warriors in scoring with 26 huge points while Tagapan and Ntumba added 12 and 11, respectively.
The victory gave USC a spot in the finals where they will be facing off against this very same UV squad in a rematch of last season’s finals showdown, which the former won in a hard-fought five game series.
The second game saw the Southwestern University (SWU)-Phinma Cobras downing the University of San Jose-Recoletos, 61-58.
USC, UV and SWU all ended up with similar 2-1 (win-loss) records at the end of the round-robin semis but the Warriors and the Lancers earned the finals berths by virtue of their higher point differentials. UV was a plus 5, USC was a plus 4 while SWU had a minus 9.
Game 1 of the finals series is scheduled tomorrow but UV team manager Gerald Anthony “Samsam” Gullas said that he will keep his Lancers from playing until a thorough investigation of the halftime incident that delayed the game for an hour, will be completed.
Emotions that were already running high got raised to a whole new level at the turn as UV head coach Gary Cortes refused to continue with the game after seeing that their locker room was vandalized with the phrase “Ayaw mo papilde” which was allegedly written in “blood.”
The phrase was considered to be threatening at the time as the result of their match would also decide the fate of SWU.
“I will not let them play Game 1 until a thorough investigation has been done by the Cesafi on who’s behind this cowardly act. This is a grave threat and I will not allow my players to be in any danger. We will not play any championship game up until the Cesafi figures out what happened,” said the youthful solon.
Fearing for the safety of his wards, Cortes initially threatened to quit on the spot if the game was continued. However, after discussing it with Gullas, he reconsidered and continued to coach.
“I didn’t know that basketball was this dirty. This is just a game. I didn’t want to risk the safety of my players, not for this game or any other game,” said an obviously distraught Cortes in Cebuano after the match.
Later, Cortes was seen heading over to the bench of Southwestern University where he profusely apologized to each and every member of the Cobras coaching staff for failing to get a victory, thereby sealing the fate of the top-ranked Cobras and relegating them to a third place game against the University of San Jose-Recoletos.
“I just wanted to apologize for not getting the win. I wanted the victory as much as they did,” said Cortes.