UV Baby Green Lancers players and coaching staff pose for a group photo after beating USJ-R in the semifinals of Cesafi Season 23. | By Glendale Rosal
CEBU CITY, Philippines— The University of the Visayas (UV) Baby Green Lancers marched to the Cebu Schools Athletic Foundation, Inc. (CESAFI) high school finals for the first time since 2018.
This was after UV staged one of Cesafi Season 23’s biggest basketball upsets by defeating the top-seed University of San Jose-Recoletos (USJ-R) Baby Jaguars.
UV erased USJ-R’s twice-to-beat advantage and finished the latter off, 68-51, in their do-or-die semifinals game on Saturday, December 9, 2023, at the Cebu Coliseum.
The last time the Baby Green Lancers played in the finals was in 2018 where they also won their seventh Cesafi high school title.
Leading UV’s charge in their upset win over USJ-R on Saturday were Kent Castro and Roderick Cambarijan who each scored 20 points. John Dela Torre added 12 markers.
Alcher Obra had 15 points, while Kyle Rueda added 10 points for USJ-R.
UV was in full control of the first two periods after leading by 11, 36-25., anchoring on the efforts of Dela Torre and Cambarijan.
However, USJ-R showed some fight and was able to cut the lead to just three, 35-38, after Chan Benedick Brigoli led a 10-2 run to start the second half.
UV responded with a 5-0 run to stretch their lead back eight, 43-35, with Castro scoring it all for them and went on to regain a double-digit lead, 45-35.
USJ-R managed to cut the lead back to single digit, 43-52, in the start of the final period, but UV quickly retaliated with another 5-0 blitz to stretch their lead to 14, 57-43.
UV maintained their huge lead and even extended it to 17, 68-51, their biggest, in the end game.
The Baby Green Lancers of head coach Jun Pepito will have to wait for the winner of the SHS-AdC and UCLM do-or-die semifinals game that is being played as of this writing.
Game one of the best-of-three high school finals is set on Monday, December 11, at 5:15 p.m.
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