Dolan Adlawan of USC and Melvin Butohan of UC scramble to get hold of the loose ball in their Cesafi seniors game at the Cebu Coliseum. (CDN PHOTO/LITO TECSON)
The University of San Carlos (USC) completed a sweep of the first round but had to fend off a feisty challenge by the undersized University of Cebu (UC) Webmasters to emerge victorious, 67-62, in the 15th Cesafi men’s basketball tournament last night at the Cebu Coliseum.
The Warriors led by as many as 15 points but had to lean on Cameroonian Shooster Olago’s production down the stretch to fight off the Webmasters, who trimmed the deficit to just three at the start of the fourth period.
Olago scored half of his 22 points in the final frame and added 13 rebounds and three steals to tow USC to their seventh win in a row.
Power forward Charles Pepito continued his string of strong performances with yet another double-double of 13 points and 13 rebounds.
USC was poised to blow the game wide open in the second canto, which it kicked off with a 10-1 run to erect a 26-11 lead.
But the Webmasters stayed the course and pulled to within eight, 22-30, at halftime behind baskets by Justine Dacalos and Jan Jabello.
UC kept the pressure on and were only within three, 30-33, after a baseline jumper and a fade-away from sweet-shooting big man Melvin Butohan.
But USC kept its poise and stayed ahead, 52-46, heading to the last stanza.
UC last threatened at 49-52 after another long-range bomb from Butohan but Olago’s scoring binge, capped by a nifty reverse lay-up off a well-executed inbound play and two free-throws brought the Warriors’ lead up to 12, 67-55, with 1:55 to go.
Butohan led UC, which dropped to 2-3 (win-loss), with 18 while Garciano Puerto and Dacalos chipped in 12 and 11 points, respectively.
In the juniors division, the USC Baby Warriors followed their older counterparts with a 95-78 beatdown of the University of Southern Philippines-Foundation (USP-F) Baby Panthers.
The win was USC’s fourth in as many games while USP-F fell to 3-2.
Hulking center Briedyn Smith paced the victors with a dominating stat-line of 20 points and nine boards while Alje Mendez had a double-double of 17 markers and 10 rebounds. Ken Gato aided USC’s campaign for perfection with 13..
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