The University of Cebu (UC) Webmasters finally broke through for their first win of the season as they crushed the University of Southern Philippines Foundation (USPF) Panthers, 80-67, in the 13th Cebu Schools Athletic Foundation Inc. (Cesafi) men’s basketball tournament last night at the Cebu Coliseum.
Big man Kenneth Niones exploited the Panthers’ sorry excuse for a frontline and notched 20 points on top of five rebounds and two steals.
Wingman Kim Gomez also was a huge pain on the side of USPF as he scored 20 points, two rebounds, two assists and three steals as the Webmasters improved to 1-3 (win-loss).
USPF fell to a league-worst 0-4.
The Panthers were within striking distance for the first 25 minutes of the game until UC finished the third with an 8-1 run capped by a buzzer-beating layup by Noel Villanueva that the Webmasters a 54-44 lead.
The Webmasters pushed pedal to the metal and led by as many as 15, 64-49, after makes by Jan Auditor and Gomez and were never threatened the rest of the way.
In the juniors division, runners-up University of the Visayas (UV) Baby Lancers solidified their grip of second place after they won their sixth game in eight games with a 75-72 win over the Cebu Institute of Technology-University (CIT-U) Wildkittens.
Wily guard Jun Manzo led the way with 25 points, four rebounds, two assists and the same number of steals.
CIT-U, which fell to 3-4, got 19 from Jesse Aloro.