CESAFI: USJ-R Jaguars finish first round with blowout win over USPF

CEBU CITY, Philippines – The University of San Jose Recoletos (USJ-R) Jaguars ended the first round of eliminations with an 84-65 demolition of the University of the Southern Philippines Foundation (USPF) Panthers, Saturday, September 3 at the New Cebu Coliseum.

While the Jaguars will be armed with a 4-2 win loss record going into the second round of elimination which will kick off September 4, the Panthers will only have one win to draw inspiration from after dropping 5 of their games.

Having been instrumental in a number of Jaguar wins, Juan Miguel Gastador finally gets to be named as the Best Player with his 17 points. He almost went perfect from the free throw line as he sank 6 of the 7 gift shots that he earned in total.

The Panthers, on the other hand, was not able to draw from their first win in four years in their previous game. While they were able to engage the Jaguars starting line-up in a neck-to-neck battle resulting to a 17-all deadlock at the end of the first quarter, they started dropping behind when the Jaguars’ second stringers started coming in.

The Panthers further wilted when USJ-R head coach Jun Noel started mixing up his players resulting to a 12-point advantage for the Jaguars, 36-24, at the halftime break on the combined efforts of Tricky Dyn Promingan, Victor Nunez, Nelvin Navarra and Ralph Jude “RJ” Dinolan.

The third canto saw the Jaguars posting its highest lead at 23 points several times until they finally settled on it going into the final 10 minutes of the ballgame.

The Panthers did cut down the Jaguars’ lead to as much as 13 points on the efforts of Lyndon Colina who scored 11 of his 20-point total in the fourth quarter.

DBTC drops again

In the high school contest, the Don Bosco (DB) Greywolves dropped to the second spot after absorbing their second straight loss, this time, against the Cebu Eastern College (CEC) Dragons, 60-63.

With the win, the CEC Dragons leap to the third spot with its 4-3 slate just behind DB Greywolves with their 4-2 card.

The University of Cebu (UC) Junior Webmasters, on the other hand, earns a share of the top spot alongside Sacred Heart School-Ateneo de Cebu Magis Eagles with their 69-56 whipping of the Cebu Institute of Technology University (CIT-U) Wildkittens.

With 3 more games to go in the eliminations, the Wildkittens have a slim chance of advancing into the quarterfinals as they have yet to win a game in six outings so far.

Also improving their chances of advancing to the quarterfinals is the Southwestern University-Phinma Baby Cobras who outsmarted the University of San Carlos (USC) Baby Warriors, 71-64. The win keeps the Baby Cobras in contention for a quarterfinals berth provided that they win all their remaining 2 matches which will not be easy as they will be up against the defending champion Magis Eagles and the University of the Visayas Baby Lancers.

While the collegiate contest follows a double round robin elimination format, the high school contest only goes through a single round robin elimination format as it has 10 teams seeing action. The top 2 teams will automatically advance to the semifinals while teams 3 and 4 will enjoy a twice to beat advantage against teams 5 and 6 in the quarterfinal round.

Games September 4

1 pm – USJR vs USPF (HS)

2:30 pm – UV vs SHS-AdC (HS)

4 pm – CIT-U vs UV (College)

5:30 pm – SWU vs USC ( College)

– Rappler.com