27 October 2018
CEBU CITY—The University of San Jose-Recoletos (USJ-R) Jaguars lived to fight another day, forcing a winner-take-all match with a gutsy 68-58 win over the defending champions University of the Visayas (UV) Green Lancers in Game 2 of the 2018 Cesafi men’s basketball tournament best-of-three finals on Saturday night, October 27, at the Cebu Coliseum here.
The Jaguars tied the series at one-game apiece, bouncing back from their 74-78 Game 1 debacle behind the solid effort of Nichole John Ubalde and Jaybie Mantilla.
Ubalde unloaded 18 points, while the reigning MVP Mantilla atoned himself from a sloppy Game 1 showing as he played big in the series-tying win with 16 points, 11 rebounds and four assists.
An eventful third quarter saw UV head coach Gary Cortes getting tossed after incurring a second technical foul.
There were some tense moments after Cortes’ ejection after he got into an altercation with anspectator at the bleacher.
The fiery UV head coach attempted to confront the fan before cooler heads prevailed, preventing the incident from escalating.
The ejection was a big blow for the Green Lancers as Cortes will be missing the all-important Game 3 on Monday, October 29, to serve a one-game suspension.
USJ-R took a 47-38 lead after three quarters of play before thwarting UV’s repeated rallies in the payoff period to move a win away from winning a first title in 25 years.
Ubalde played the fireman’s role in the back and forth duel in the fourth where he dumped nine of his total output.
Rey Suerte led UV with 17 points but needed 27 shots to get there.
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