Playing to honor fallen teammate, SBP squad of USC upsets NCR champion La Salle

Somewhere up above, their fallen comrade was smiling as the Small Basketeers of the Philippines (SBP) squad of the University of San Carlos registered a huge upset in defeating the powerhouse La Salle Greenhills, 56-48, at the start of the national finals of the Milo-backed Best Twin Tournament yesterday in Roxas City.

USC is dedicating its participation in this tournament to a fallen teammate JV Cenabre, who passed away earlier in the week.

With emotions running high, the Visayas champions stared at a 23-30 halftime deficit but were unfazed as they went on a 14-3 run that was led by Neon Chavez and Jholo Pakanna, who bucked a fractured hand injury, to take a 34-33 lead to the final canto. They kept the pedal to the metal and zoomed off to a 50-40 lead that saw key contributions from Chavez, Vince Galan, Carlo Jovellanos and Daniel Rodriguez.

The NCR champions got to within four, 46-50 with a little over two minutes left but USC sealed the win by scoring six more points.

In the Passerelle division, the University of the Visayas had no such luck against La Salle, which creamed them, 83-66.

The Baby Lancers actually fought toe-to-toe with the NCR titlists but the latter turned up the defensive intensity in the payoff period, which UV could not handle, resulting in a 51-60 deficit after trailing by just one at the end of the third canto.

The writing was then on the wall for the boys of head coach Jaymar Canoy as La Salle erected an 81-63 lead en route to the easy win.

In the other Passerelle game, Holy Child School of Davao defeated Holy Angel University of Pampanga, 63-58, while Ateneo de Davao University stopped Don Bosco Academy, 63-44, in the other SBP game.

The national finals of the BEST Center SBP Passerelle Twin Basketball Tournament is the year-ending games of this nationwide tournament sponsored by Milo. Gov. Victor Tanco was the special guest at the opening ceremonies.