USC Warriors top Iloilo in NCC hoop

Games today:

Cebu Coliseum

5:30 p.m. – UV vs. Holy Trinity

7: 15 p.m. – SWU vs. USC

The University of San Carlos (USC) Warriors advanced to the next stage of the stepladder phase of the Southern Islands Championships in the 2013 National Collegiate Championship after they got past the resilient Iloilo Doctors’ University, 82-73, last night at the Cebu Coliseum.

The Warriors played with fire all-game long as their uninspired play mixed with the Doctors’ own hot perimeter shooting made for a recipe for disaster.

Fortunately for the Warriors of head coach Junthy Valenzuela, the Cebu Schools Athletic Foundation Inc. (Cesafi) three-point king Miguel Plata came alive to bail them out in the final canto.

Plata, a recruit from the University of Mindanao, shot in 10 straight points that anchored a 16-2 breakaway that proved to be the death knell for the visitors from Iloilo City as it put the Cesafi third placers in front, 77-61.

Plata finished with 27 points, 12 coming in the fourth stanza while high-leaping import Ahmed Salihou added 19 markers.

The Doctors trailed early in the game, 16-6, but got right back into it behind the three-point sniping of Jureemar Loredo and Mark Mancera along with the crafty play of big man John Carcillar. They even took over the lead briefly in the third, 42-36, after seven straight markers from Rodney Sugide.

But USC got its bearings and regained the advantage, 56-54, going to the fourth before breaking the game wide open with the scoring run that was started by two free throws from Victor Rabat.

After Plata’s scoring binge, Kiefer Lim added a lay-up off an alley-oop pass from Nico Magat then Salihou put the game away with a putback with 4:05 left.

Carcillar paced the Doctors with 16 points while Gerry Abadiano and Sugide each had 10.

The win placed USC in a match-up tonight with Cesafi runners-up Southwestern University.

Earlier in the day, the Holy Trinity College Wildcats beat the STI College Olympians, 98-94, behind Criss Masaglang’s 34 points.

The Wildcats will face off against the defending Cesafi champions University of the Visayas Green Lancers at 5:30 p.m.