Jaguars lead Cesafi best-of-three battle for third series against UC Webmasters

Regardless of the placing that they were playing for, the University of San Jose-Recoletos Jaguars showed plenty of pride as they took Game 1 of the best-of-three series for third place, 74-59, in the 12th Cebu Schools Athletic Foundation Inc. (Cesafi men’s basketball tournament last night at the Cebu Coliseum.

After laying a big fat egg in the semifinals, where they failed to win a single game, the Jaguars showed what they could do with a complete and healthy roster as they welcomed back star forward Abulaiz Suliman and wingman Jayson Olbedado.

Suliman missed the last game because of an ankle injury while Olbedado missed the entire semis with a bum knee.

Still, the Jaguars needed to exert maximum effort against the dethroned champions, which kept on coming back after each time USJ-R tried to blow the game wide open.

USJ-R led by 14, 50-36, as Miguel Tabaloc poured in 10 points in the third period. But UC kept within striking distance as it trailed by just seven, 54-47, heading to the last stanza.

The Webmasters poured it on and were within just three, 51-54, after a long two by Val Cueva and a lay-in by Brian Heruela. But USJ-R turned the jets on and retaliated with a 13-2 run that saw post baskets from Matthew Parker, a driving lay-up by Banjo Capilar, a three-poiner by Olbedado and a putback by Tabaloc that put the Jaguars up, 67-53, with 3:36 left in the game.

Tabaloc had a marvelous game with 16 points, 10 rebounds, two assists and five steals while Olbedado had 13 markers, five boards and four steals. Cueva had his best game as a Webmaster with 15 points.

In the juniors division, the Cebu Institute of Technology-University drew first blood in their series for the third place trophy after they eked past the Cebu Eastern College Dragons, 81-78, in overtime.