Cebu City: Defending champions Southwestern University Cobras escaped the upset axe to overcome a furious fourth quarter rally by the Cebu Institute of Technology University Wildcats to fashion an 69-64 win before an enthusiastic crowd at the Cebu Coliseum in the ongoing Cebu Schools Athletic Foundation Inc.,(Cesafi) on Saturday.
The depleted nine-man line-up of the Cobras who lost their opening game against the University of San Carlos Warriors last Sunday raced to a 35-17 with 3:25 left in the opening quarter before the Wildcats slowly cut the lead to ten points at the half, 39-29.
The SWU Cobras regained their composure in the third quarter and late in the fourth when they led 64-53 on a big triple by Melvin Holper but the CIT Wildcats uncorked a 9-2 run to slice the lead to 4, 66-62 with 1:52 remaining in the game.
Two sorry misses from the free throw line by Steven Bucao with 1:23 left to play stalled the Wildcats rally even as back-to-back MVP Mark Jayven Tallo scored with his patented crossover spin move to cushion the Cobras lead to 68-62 with just over 53 seconds remaining in the game, before Jose Allen Dimco countered with a driving layup to cut the lead to four with 34.8 seconds left to play, the closest the Wildcats got.
Tallo missed two free throws with just over 20 seconds left before Melvin Holper came to the rescue with a block on Jose Marlo Pono?s attempted layup with 8 seconds left to seal the deal for the Cobras who now have a 1-1 win-loss slate.
The Viva Sports television panel of Rico Navarro and Sandi Grumo picked Tallo who finished with 14 points, 8 rebounds and 4 assists as the ?Best Player of the Game? in the IBC Prime Time coverage.
Melvin Holper also finished with 14 points while Jovanie Luz contributed 10 points while last year?s Cesafi leading scorer Joshua Dela Cerna had 20 points and Allan Dimco 10 for the losing Wildcats who dropped their second game in a row to go down 0-2 in the standings.
In the juniors division the Cebu Eastern College Dragons came from behind to beat Don Bosco Technology Center Greywolves 60-42 while the USJ-R Baby Lancers drubbed the University of Visayas Baby Lancers 65-43 while the USJ-R Junior Webmasters survived a fourth quarter rally by the University of Cebu Junior vWebmasters to win 76-67.
Box Scores; Main Game::
SWU (69) -- Tallo 14, Holper 14, Luz 10, Bautista 9, Pardo 8, Racho 8, Auditor 6, Clam 0, Gonzaga 0.
CIT-U (64) -- Dela Cerna 20, Dimco 10, Pono 9, Brigoli 7, Lucena 5, Bucao 3, Kong 3, Aloro 3, Mu?ez 2, Mumar 2, Sanchez 0, Taghoy 0.
Quarter Scores: 16-10; 39-29; 54-47; 69-64.
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