2nd-half assault evens UV-USC series

By Marian C. Baring
Sunstar
October 10, 2007

Defending champion University of the Visayas Green Lancers overcame a humbling bashing in Game 1 and managed to level the field in the best of five championship series when they exacted revenge on the University of San Carlos Warriors, 94-75, in the “most intense series” of the Cebu Schools Athletic Foundation Inc. Sunday night at the Cebu Coliseum.

“This is the most intense and the most emotional for us,” said UV head coach Elmer “Boy” Cabahug, who had steered the Lancers to the past six Cesafi titles and who could not sit down the entire game last Sunday.

“Before, you see me sitting on the bench, it was because the players can handle the game themselves, but they were somehow lost so I had to take charge,” Cabahug said.

It was a huge comeback for the Lancers not only because of the their 69-61 loss in Game 1, but because they were down by 17 points and were once more on the verge of another loss before jolting back into life en route to level the series.

The Green Lancers, who have been struggling since the semifinals with their perimeter shooting going bland, woke up from the slump and started a heavy shower of
three-point attacks that gave them the victory.

Von Lañete, Chris Diputado, Ritchum Dennison and Ariel Mepaña gave the Warriors the surprise of their lives when they scattered seven consecutive three-pointers at the end of the third quarter and in the payoff round, which opened the floodgates for a 27-0 windfall to finally seal the deal.

Not only were their shooters rekindled, their defenses also got more intense in this period as they pushed back the Warriors’ shooters to scoring only six points in the crucial quarter and limited USC’s dynamic duo of Niño Ramirez and Enrico Llanto to only 12 points each.

Deja vu

The match actually started like the first game, with the Warriors on the driver’s seat and leading by as much as 17, 48-32, in the final half.

It was déjà vu as the slow-starting UV squad also let out a fiery comeback in the third period with 32 points to cut the lead to just four, 64-69. USC only needed to maintain the distance, but the fourth quarter happened.

“It is back to being a best-of-three finals,” said Cabahug as the series is tied at one game each. This is the first time that the Cesafi collegiate basketball finals was stretched to five games after holding best-of-three finals in the previous editions.

UV captain Ariel Mepaña was at the forefront of his team’s campaign scoring 25 points for his team. Lanete added 18, while Dennison and Rino Berame had 13 and 12 points, respectively.