Arnold Azangue of USJ-R loses the ball as he is defended by UV’s Lassina Coulibaly in a Cesafi Partner’s Cup 2019 game at the Cebu Coliseum. CDN Digital photo | Brian J. Ochoa
Cebu City, Philippines—The University of the Visayas (UV) just sent a strong signal to the rest of the league.
The defending men’s basketball champions Green Lancers pulled away late in the game and scored a clinical 92-70 win over the University of San Jose-Recoletos (USJ-R) Jaguars in the Cesafi Partner’s Cup pre-season tournament on Thursday night, June 27, 2019, at the Cebu Coliseum.
UV improved to 3-0 (win-loss) with the win against the team it beat in last year’s championship series. This is the first meeting of both finalists since the 2018 championship series that went the distance and which UV won, 2-1.
Melvin Butohan had a good offensive night for UV, scoring 23 points to help the Green Lancers sustain its winning run in the tournament. Froiland Maglasang added 15.
The Jaguars, which was parading a revamped lineup, got 15 from foreign student-athlete Arnold Azangue and 12 from Elmer Echavez.
In the high school game held earlier, the USJ-R Baby Jaguars crushed the Cebu Institute of Technology-University (CIT-U) Wildkittens, 80-57. /bmjo
A CIT-U player is ganged up by three USJ-R defenders in a high school game of the Cesafi Partner’s Cup. CDN Digital photo | Brian J. Ochoa