John Aranas of USC pierces the defense of USPF’s John Paul Niño Batac and Roy Quiachon Jr. in a Cesafi basketball game at the Cebu Coliseum.
CDN PHOTOLITO TECSON
The University of San Carlos (USC) Warriors proved yet again that they’re a team to reckon with this season as they captured their second straight win with an 86-57 demolition of the University of Southern Philippines Foundation (USPF) Panthers in the 17th Cesafi men’s basketball tournament last night at the New Cebu Coliseum.
Proving that their all-local squad is just as — or even more — lethal than those with foreign reinforcements, the Warriors blitzed the Panthers on offense and swarmed them on defense, rendering their big guns — especially African center Richy Managor — useless.
After an impressive debut, Managor was held down to a mere one point and two rebounds.
USC got 12 points each from John Saycon and Magic Marata with the former adding seven rebounds, seven assists and two steals. Kevin Oleodo and Victor Rabat added nine apiece.
USC blew the game wide open in the third canto where they rattled off 20 unanswered points to turn a 48-34 lead into a 68-34 cushion, which proved more than enough for them to cruise to the top of the standings with a clean 2-0 win-loss mark.
Showing the kind of depth they have this season, it was the reserves that did the most damage as Leo Labiste, Marata and Bryan Divinagracia came off the bench and pumped in 13 points during that difference-making stretch.
After winning over the Cebu Institute of Technology-University during opening weekend, USPF now owns a 1-1 (win-loss) card. Edwin Villarta paced USPF with 13 markers.
In the high school division, the University of San Jose-Recoletos (USJ-R) Baby Jaguars ripped the Cebu Eastern College (CEC) Dragons apart, 96-66.
USJ-R clicked on all cylinders from the get-go to erect a 26-8 lead after the first 10 minutes of action.
From there, it just got better for the Baby Jaguars as the Dragons could not find their rhythm even with the insertion of ace forward James Tempra in the second period after getting sat down in the first.
Versatile guard John Gonzaga led USJ-R in scoring with 22 points while Elmer Echavez backed him up, tallying 18 markers.
Tempra led CEC with 16 points in the losing cause.