Sheldon Gahi of UV falls after he collides with Paul Galinato of UC in a Cesafi Partner’s Cup game at the Cebu Coliseum. CDN PHOTO/LITO TECSON
LENDING credence to his burgeoning reputation as the best amateur player on this side of the country, wingman Rey Suerte took over down the stretch and scored 12 straight points to lift the University of the Visayas (UV) Green Lancers over the M. Lhuillier-University of Cebu (UC) Webmasters, 80-74, in the 2018 Cesafi Partner’s Cup Preseason Tournament last night at the Cebu Coliseum.
With the game hanging in the balance, Suerte put on display his entire repertoire, scoring from every angle on a dizzying array of pull-up and fadeaway jumpers as well as hard drives to the rack, the last one resulting in a bank shot that gave UV a 76-72 lead, with 39 seconds remaining.
After UC failed to get a clean shot off, Suerte put the game on ice with two free throws that sealed UV’s six-game sweep of the elimination round.
In all, Suerte scored 12 of his 25 points in the last five minutes of the game. Team skipper Josue Segumpan added 12 points, all coming from behind the three-point arc.
The loss was UC’s first in six games. Nevertheless, the two teams will meet in the best-of-three finals with Game One set on Sunday.
Justine Dacalos paced UC with 19 but Cameroonian forward Frederick Elombi was held down to 13 markers.
In the high school division, the University of Southern Philippines Foundation (USPF) Baby Panthers barged into the finals with a 75-67 win over the University of San Jose-Recoletos (USJ-R) Baby Jaguars.
USPF ended the eliminations with a 5-1 win-loss card.