CEBU CITY – Former Cesafi MVP Rey Suerte took over down the stretch with 12 straight points to send the University of the Visayas Green Lancers past the M. Lhuillier-University of Cebu Webmasters, 80-74, in the 2018 Cesafi Partner’s Cup Preseason Tournament on Tuesday night at the Cebu Coliseum.
With the game’s outcome hanging in the balance, Suerte unleashed his entire repertoire, scoring on an array of pull-up and fadeaway jumpers as well as hard drives to the basket, the last one resulting in a bank shot that gave UV a 76-72 lead, with 39 seconds remaining.
After UC failed to get a good shot off as the shot clock expired, Suerte put the game on ice with two free throws to cap UV’s six-game sweep of the elimination round of this preseason competition.
In all, Suerte scored 12 of his 25 points in the last five minutes of the game. Team skipper Josue Segumpan added 12 points, all coming from behind the three-point arc.
The loss was UC’s first in six games. Nevertheless, the two teams will meet in the best-of-three finals of this tournament, with Game One slated on Sunday.
Justine Dacalos paced UC with 19 even as Darrell Shane Menina and Allen Pelegrino each had 15. Cameroonian forward Frederick Elombi however, was held down to a mere 13 markers.
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