The Mighty Sports-University of San Jose-Recoletos Jaguars all but sealed their entry into the semifinal round with a 77-70 win over the Highlands Corned Beef-University of Cebu Webmasters in the 8th Cesafi Partner’s Cup on Tuesday night at the Cebu Coliseum.
Though the Webmasters put up a tremendous fight, coming within four down the stretch, the Jaguars got clutch baskets from Nelvin Navarra and Jaybie Mantilla to help seal their third win against two losses. USJ-R is now in solo third place.
The Jaguars led by 12, 70-58, after a lay-up by Tricky Peromingan that came off a gorgeous feed from Mantilla but the Webmasters countered with a 7-2 burst capped by a three-point play by Geleant Delator that trimmed the deficit to four, 68-72.
But Navarra came up with a huge offensive rebound and a putback and Mantilla banked in a jumper to raise the lead back to eight, 76-68, 1:48 to go. UC was not able to gain any more headway after that and fell to 2-3 (win-loss) for this tournament.
Miguel Gastador led UJS-R with 17 points while RJ Dinolan added 13. Navarra and fellow big man Edmundo Bayhunan contributed 10 each.
Delator and Fil Culango scored 12 each to pace the Webmasters.
Meanwhile in the curtain-raiser, the Phinma-Southwestern University Cobras ran circles around the My Led Opto-Cebu Institute of Technology-University Wildcats, 74-47, to snatch their fourth win in five tries.
Two-time Cesafi MVP Mac Tallo led the offensive assault with a near double-double of 18 points and nine rebounds laced with two steals. His veteran backcourt mate, John Lloyd Luz, was just as lethal as he tallied 16 points and four assists to help send the Wildcats out the door with their fifth loss against a lone win, eliminating them from the next round.
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