UNIVERSITY of Baguio leaned on the sweet shooting Claude Camit to shut down University of the Cordillera's three peat bid, 79-60, at the close of the eliminations round in the Baguio - Benguet Educational Athletic League season 32.
Camit fired five triples to score 15 points as the UB Cardinals dethroned the UC Jaguars and claim the top spot and a twice to beat advantage in the semi - finals of men's basketball on November 22 at the UB Cardinals Gym.
Camit, despite his right shoulder injury managed to play thru the game and carry the 25 time men's basketball champion.
"During the game naramdaman kong sumakit yung balikat ko pero yung foucs talaga namin is ipanalo ang game," Camit said.
The Cardinals immediately went to work in the opening canto posting a 23 - 19 lead with Camit already firing three triples then padded their lead to 11, 44 - 33 at half time.
From then on, the Cardinals went berserk, as it limited the defending champion to only 11 points in the third quarter while firing away 21 points.
The loss placed UC with a 3-3 slate in tie with Saint Louis University and Cordillera Career Development College but was relegated to the fifth spot after the tie break. The Jaguars won over SLU by eight points but lost to CCDC by 17 for a minus 9 quotient points. CCDC with its 17 points win over UC wounds up with minus 7 due to the 24 loss to SLU.
Bigman Renz dela Cruz added 12 markers for the Cardinals who were recruited together with Camit during the National Basketball Training Camp.
Despite a clean slate and a twice to beat advantage, Cardinals head coach Joel Flores believes the team has still a long way to go as they seek to reclaim the title in the premier tournament of the league.
"It's back to zero pag dating sa semis, although mas motivated yung team na Manalo," said Flores.
The Cardinals will face off with fourth seeded CCDC in their semis pairing.
Baguio College of Technology, sans big man Armando Pollante who was declared ineligible to play due to academic deficiency meanwhile will have a twice to beat edge against third seeded SLU in the other semis pairing. (Roderick Osis with a report from Jean Nicole Cortes)