THE DEFENDING champions Teleperformance All-Stars and the Convergys Converters hacked out contrasting victories to draw first blood in their respective semifinal series in the Elite Classic of the 11th City Sports Club-Cebu (CSC-C) E-League for Basketball last Saturday at the CSC-C Gym.
Teleperformance hung tough in the endgame to survive the Accenture Sharks, 85-81, while the Convergys leaned on a backbreaking third quarter assault to cruise to a 60-43 win over the Lexmark Stallions.
Teleperformance and Convergys grabbed 1-0 leads in the two best-of-three series, needing just one more win to force a best-of-three E-League Finals showdown.
Ryan Veloso came up with 14 points to lead the defending champions, while James Lester Navaja and Dean Junber Escalon added 13 and 12 markers, respectively.
The Converters, on the other hand, stunned the erstwhile unbeaten Stallions behind a torrid third-quarter attack that saw them exploding for 25 points while holding their opponent to a single point.
The amazing run allowed Convergys to turn a 22-31 halftime deficit into a 47-32 lead going into the final period.
The Stallions failed to recover from the momentous third-quarter collapse en route to tasting their first loss after racking up nine straight wins.
Kenneth Dysam paced the Converters with 16 points, Sherwin Resilla contributed 13 markers, 13 rebounds, four steals and a block.