THE SOUTHWESTERN University Phinma Cobras notched their fifth straight win with a 72-61 rout of the Cebu Webmasters in the 16th edition of Cebu’s premier collegiate league, the CESAFI, at the Cebu Coliseum on Saturday.
The Cobras set the pace at the start of the first quarter with a 14-0 run that gave them a comfortable 22-8 spread over the Webmasters and padded their lead to 19 points when two-time MVP Mark Tallo buried a triple to beat the half time buzzer.
The Webmasters refused to give up and rallied to trim the lead to nine points behind the shooting of Justine Dacalos, Gilent Delator and Peter Codilla to make it a 57-66 score, but were hampered by time constraints.
A resurgent Bernie Bregondo sparked a Webmasters’ rally with 16 points and 9 rebounds, while former Perpetual Help’s standout rookie guard Shaquille Imperial added 15 points, 7 boards , 5 assists and 4 steals, but it was too little too late and the Webmasters dropped to a record of 2-3.
Dacalos was the Webmasters’ leading scorer with 21 points, while Delator added 11 but a member of the pre-season tournament mythical five JR Puerto once again failed to make an impact and ended with only three points.
The scores:
SWU-PHINMA (72) Bregondo 16, Imperial 15, Tallo 14, Barte 6, Ortega 5, Nzuzi 5, Racho 4, Luz 3, Bravo 2, Roncal 2, Molina 0, Polican 0, Pardo 0.
UC (61) Dacalos 21, Delator 11, Codilla 8, Tagudin 8, Suelto 7, Puerto 3, Culango 2, Nazareno 0, Malabuyoc 0, Bautista 0, Mayol 0, Paghasian 0, Olmilla 0.
Quarterscores – 22-8; 41-22; 58-36; 72-61.