UC Webmasters march into Partners' Cup finals

CEBU, Philippines - Topgunner Moncrief Rogado was handcuffed to a tournament-low six points, but 6-foot-9 beanpole June Mar Fajardo stepped up bigtime by scoring 39 points as Enervon/UC Webmasters pulled off a hard-earned 96-88 victory over the Ave Maria Sanctuary Park/USJ-R Jaguars to proceed into the finals of the 3rd CESAFI Partners' Cup at the Cebu Coliseum.

The other championship slot was still being contested as of this writing last night by No. 1 seed Hotel Fortuna/SWU Cobras and the third-ranked Prime Asia/UV Lancers.

Rogado, a three-point specialist, struggled in the entire game mainly because of the solid defense employed on him by the Jaguars. Fajardo, however, gamely rose to the occasion and became UC's saving grace in the game that vaulted the Webmasters to their best ever showing in any CESAFI-sanctioned event since the league's inception nine years ago.

The Jaguars managed to open an 11-point lead late in the second period on an eight-point swing by Kurt Amores, but the Webmasters fought back with savvy to pull within five points, 51-56, on a scoring blitz highlighted by a rare four-point play by Leymund Babad off John Michael Montenegro foul.

Both teams figured in a see-saw battle in the fourth period until Fajardo ignited a sparkling 12-0 run that put the Webmasters comfortably ahead by eight points with 11 seconds left to play. The Webmasters silenced the Jaguars in the final 4:33 mark in the contest.

In that span, Fajardo scored seven straight points, Agas added two points off a steal, Janssen Abella canned two free throws and Kelvin Juliane split his charities to complete the blackout.

Edrward Pao had another excellent performance as aside from helping the Webmasters in controlling the boards, he also scored 14 points followed by Abella with 11 points.

Amores paced the Jaguars with 23 points, while Ranulfo Malinao and Armand Ponce banged in 19 points each. Jabe Delfino chipped in 14 markers as only six Jaguars scored in the entire game.

The scores

Enervon/UC (96) — Fajardo 39, Pao 14, abella 11, Rogado 6, Agas 5, Juliane 5, Luceño 4, Babad 4, Ramos 4, Qulantang 2

Ave Maria/USJ-R (88) — Amores 23, Ponce 19, Malinao 19, Delfino 14, Llera 9, Bibera 2 Halftime: 51-56       (THE FREEMAN)