Players and team officials of the Sacred Heart School-Ateneo de Cebu Magis Eagles flash the number seven sign after they captured their seventh straight title in the Cebu National Basketball Training Center Division 1 via a 66–61 win over the University of the Visayas Baby Lancers yesterday.
CDN PHOTO/LITO TECSON
The Sacred Heart School-Ateneo de Cebu Magis Eagles dug themselves out of an 11-point deficit and thwarted the resilient University of the Visayas (UV) Baby Lancers, 66–61, to win their seventh straight title in the Cebu National Basketball Training Center (NBTC) Division 1 in a thrilling Game 3 of the best-of-three finals series yesterday at the Hoopsdome in Lapu-Lapu City.
In a fitting finale to what has been a colorful and controversial finals showdown, the two bitter rivals put on a back-and-forth contest that featured all kinds of action.
In the end though, it was the Magis Eagles’ championship mettle that lifted them over the top as Errol Pastor, Patrick Yu and Travis Mantua scored one clutch point after another to finally vanquish the hard-fighting Baby Lancers.
Mantua led the Magis Eagles with 19 points, Pastor had 10 while Alex Visser and Andrew Velasco, who was named as the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player, combined for 17 markers.
Drawing inspiration from their banished teammate, Justin Jake Rosete, the Baby Lancers came out swinging and established several 11-point leads, the last at 29–18. However, Ateneo de Cebu slowly chipped away at the deficit and were within one, 58–57, 3:55 left in the match.
Pastor then tied the game with a free-throw before Yu put the Eagles in the driver’s seat with a three-pointer from the corner, 2:55 left. Two free-throws by Mantua upped their lead to 63–58, nearly two minutes remaining.
UV’s last gasp came off a three-pointer by Froiland Maglasang that trimmed the deficit to two, 61–63, but UV guard Beirn Laurente threw an errant pass that got picked off by Yu which led to a transition layup by Mantua for a 65–61 lead, time down to 19 seconds.
UV had several chances to come closer but couldn’t connect on any of their attempts and Jeremy Nacua sealed the victory with a free-throw after Laurente was called for an unsportsmanlike foul as he was trying to stop Mantua from leaking out in transition with just four ticks left on the clock.
Laurente led UV with 22 points while Jhiey Paraldo chipped in 10. However, the Baby Lancers got just nine from star forward Jancork Cabahug, who was swarmed by Ateneo de Cebu’s defense all game long.