FIGHT BACK: North wastes 29-point lead but rallies to escape South in Cesafi All-Star Game

The North All Stars squandered a huge 29-point lead but staged their own fightback to nip the South All Stars, 99-91,  in the Cebu Schools Athletic Foundation Inc. (Cesafi) men’s All-Star Game yesterday at the Cebu Coliseum.

The North squads, composed of stalwarts from the University of San Carlos (USC), University of the Visayas (UV) and the University of Cebu (UC), were in full control of the match, thanks to a white-hot start that saw them sink one three-pointer after another.

Shooster Olago of the University of San Carlos leaps over three persons to win the foreigner slam dunk competition of the Cesafi All-Star Game yesterday at the Cebu Coliseum. (CDN PHOTO/LITO TECSON)

They already led by 20, 27-7, after the opening frame and stretched it to a high of 29, 47-18, before the South team, comprised of aces from Southwestern University (SWU), University of San Jose-Recoletos (USJ-R) and Cebu Institute of Technology-University (CIT-U), rallied behind James Regalado, Anton Pardo and Landry Sanjo.

A 15-0 blast in the third helped close the gap to 10, 56-66, heading to the final frame. The South continued its assault and pulled to within a point, 76-77, after a triple by Regalado and a putback by Sanjo. However, two free-throws by USC import Shooster Olago and keyhole jumper by Rhaffy Octobre pushed the lead back up to five, 81-76, 1:11 to go.

A corner three by Anton Pardo sliced the deficit to two but Victor Rabat split his charities to peg the North’s lead at three, 82-79. Regalado then came up big as he splashed in a triple from straightaway with 3.4 ticks left to knot the count and send the game into overtime.

The South eventually took the lead, 86-84, after another triple from Regalado and a free-throw from Mac Tallo. But the North found their second wind in overtime, leaning on Franz Arong who tied the game at 89-all with a corner trey, Olago who scored an undergoal stab for the go-ahead points and veteran guard John Abad who tallied the team’s last eight points to secure the exciting victory.

Olago was eventually named as the game’s Most Valuable Player (MVP) after scoring 27 points. The UV trio of Octobre, Arong and Abad finished with 21, 17 and 12, respectively. The South was led by the 25 of Sanjo, the 16 of Tallo and the 15 of Regalado. Named to the game’s Mythical Five team were Olago, Tallo, Regalado, Arong and Octobre.

University of the Visayas’ Leonard Santillan completes his own dunk over a spectator to rule the local slam dunk contest. (CDN PHOTO/LITO TECSON)

In the juniors all star game, the South prevailed over the North, 87-60, behind the 17 points of UV’s Joshua Flores, who was named as the game’s MVP. Joining him in the Mythical Team were his UV teammates Orlan Wamar, JC Escalona and Sacred Heart School-Ateneo standouts Zach Huang and Janjan Jaboneta.

Pardo won the three-point shootout, outlasting Rabat in the sudden-death finals, 6-5. The foreigners division of the slam dunk competition was won by Olago who jumped over three people for his final dunk. Leonard Santillan was named as top local slam dunker.