USC ends drought, crowned new Cesafi men’s champion

Members of the USC Warriors carry head coach Britt Carlo Reroma after winning over the UV Green Lancers in the deciding Game 5 of the Cesafi men’s basketball finals at the Cebu Coliseum.
CDN PHOTO/LITO TECSON

The long wait is over.

 
After 57 long years, the University of San Carlos (USC) Warriors can finally call themselves champions as they defeated the University of the Visayas (UV) Green Lancers, 64-53, in the sudden-death Game Five of the 15th Cesafi men’s basketball finals on Tuesday night at the packed Cebu Coliseum.

 
Cameroonian Shooster Olago put the Warriors on his back and carried them to the promised land as he scored half of his 26 points in the fourth period, including 12 straight in a 14-0 run that put USC in front for good and lay claim to its first Cesafi crown.

 
The Warriors trailed by as many as 12 and were staring at another heartbreaking defeat in the decider for the second straight year.

 
OLAGO MVP

 
Down 40-46  at the start of the fourth, Olago tallied 12 in a telling 14-0 that gave USC the lead which it held until the final buzzer.
Olago scored 26 points, pulled down 19 rebounds and had three steals, a far cry from his horrendous performance in last year’s Game Five loss to Southwestern University (SWU), where he managed just four points and turned the ball over 10 times.

CESAFI MVP Shooster Olago of USC.
CDN PHOTO/LITO TECSON

He was eventually named as the league’s Most Valuable Player and was joined on the Mythical Five squad by his teammate, Charles Pepito, SWU guard Mark Jayven Tallo, University of San Jose-Recoletos (USJ-R) forward RJ Dinolan and UV wingman Leonard Santillan.

 
Britt Reroma, USC’s head coach, said the team’s achievement was a dream come true for the entire Carolinian community.
“We just didn’t give up on our team,” Reroma said. “We fell short last year but we didn’t give up.”

 
He also heaped praise on Olago, who he said did not cave in in spite of the tremendous pressure on him.
“I just told him to keep on pounding, to keep on working inside and good things will happen.”

 
STRONG START

 
The Green Lancers started off strong as they took advantage of the size mismatch presented by Santillan to score a 17-6 lead after the opening 10 minutes of action.

 
Standing 6-foot-5 and defended by guards several inches shorter than him, Santillan relentlessly scored down low and had nine by the end of the first.

 
He continued his onslaught with yet another make inside and added a free-throw to give UV its biggest lead of the game at 12, 20-8.

William McAloney of USC jumps over Arvie Cabanero of UV in Game 5 of the Cesafi finals.
CDN PHOTO/LITO TECSON

USC made a late run behind Victor Rabat, Pepito and Olago to slice the deficit to five, 25-30, at halftime.

 
UV opened the third with a 10-3 run capped by a huge tomahawk slam by Steve Akomo and a long two by Franz Arong to push the lead back to a dozen, 40-28.

 
USC later responded with five straight points from Olago to pull USC to within six, 40-46, heading to the final frame.

 
The fourth was decisively all USC as guard Kiefer Lim kicked the run off with a floater in the lane. Olago then started a string of 12 straight points — and fished Akomo’s fourth foul that proved to be the game’s turning point.

 
UV self-destructed not long after as star guard Jun Manzo was ejected from the game for punching Olago in the gut.
Ian Ortega and Olago hit several free-throws down the stretch to complete their title run.

 
Santillan finished with just 16 points for  UV while Akomo couldn’t find his range all-game and had just six while Manzo, UV’s spark plug in this series, came up with just four.