29 October 2018
CEBU CITY—Delayed but never denied.
The University of the Visayas (UV) Green Lancers added another hardware to their growing collection of championship trophies after they vanquished the University of San Jose-Recoletos (USJ-R) Jaguars, 74-61, in their winner-take-all Game 3 of the 2018 Cesafi men’s basketball tournament best-of-three finals on Monday at the Cebu Coliseum here.
The Green Lancers completed a three-peat, winning a third straight crown despite missing the services of head coach Gary Cortes, who served a one-game suspension following his ejection in their 58-68 Game 2 loss.
Despite the suspension, Cortes was in the venue as he watched from the bleachers and witnessed how the Green Lancers pull away in the endgame to seal their 13th overall crown.
UV threatened to break the game wide open early when it posted a 13-point lead but USJ-R put up a big fightback and forced a 59-all standoff midway through the fourth period.
Rey Anthony Suerte and rookie Jafet Claridad then took over for the Green Lancers as they sparked a 15-2 blast that settled the outcome of the contest.
Suerte wound up with 16 points, eight rebounds, three assists and three steals and went home with home with his second Most Valuable Player award in three seasons.
Claridad came off the bench to chip in 15 markers.
Bassiere Sackor ably manned the paint for UV and finished with 14 points and 14 rebounds. Jancork Cabahug added 11 points and eight rebounds.
Fletcher Galvez, Segamars Ewenike and Nichole Ubalde Ubalde each scored 12 points for USJ-R, which fell short in its campaign to end a 25-year title drought.
It didn’t help for USJ-R that reigning MVP was held down to just 11 points and fouled out with still 5:34 to play.
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