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*** N.MARIANA ISLANDS MEN BASKETBALL MAIN PAGE ***
 | Fiesta-Grand and Hyatt cruise past foes | |
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by Eurobasket News - Mar 1, 2008 | |  | League-leading Fiesta-Grand Hotel and Hyatt Regency Saipan cruised past their opponents as second round action in the 2nd Annual HANMI Cup Inter-Hotel Basketball League continued last Wednesday at the Gilbert C. Ada Gymnasium. Fiesta-Grand streaked to its eight straight win after a 110-96 victory over upset-conscious Saipan World Resort, while Hyatt slammed the Marlon Bamba-led Hafadai Beach Hotel, 103-83. It was the eighth win in nine games for Fiesta-Grand and they continued to lead the seven-team field while handing World Resort its seventh loss against two wins. Ryan Sanciangco and Elmer Esdrelon continued to pace the Fiesta-Grand offense but this time they had plenty of help from William Opone, who joined in the scoring fray. Sanciangco and Esdrelon ended up with their usual numbers of 40 and 29 points, respectively, but it was Opone's second-half exploits that made the difference for Fiesta-Grand. Opone, after being held to two points in the first half, scored 11 points in the second half to help Fiesta-Grand rally back from several nine-point deficits in the third quarter. His consistent shooting also kept World Resort at bay. Opone finished with 13 points, nine rebounds, six assists, and one steal. Esdrelon also had 10 rebounds, three assists, and six steals. Noel David added 11 points also for Fiesta-Grand. Jerryfel Mangahis paced World Resort with 25 points, five rebounds, and four assists, while backcourt mate Dennis Vinas had 22 points, three rebounds, five assists, and five steals before fouling out in the final two minutes of the game. James Wabinga and Jam Navarro combined for 23 points, nine rebounds, and four assists, while Schneider Lanzo only had five points but grabbed a team high nine rebounds against Fiesta-Grand's big men.
In the second game, Hyatt took Hafadai center Marlon Bamba out of his comfort zone to breeze to a 103-83 victory. Hyatt ganged up Bamba whenever he received the ball inside the shaded area, at times double-teaming the Hafadai workhorse to force him to commit a turnover or kick out the ball. Bamba fell into early foul trouble picking up his third with still four minutes left in the first quarter. Steven Tenorio sacrificed his body to force Bamba's third foul, establishing his position against a charging Bamba to draw the charge. Hafadai was within striking distance when Bamba was pulled out of the game and only trailed Hyatt by six, 9-15. With Bamba gone, Hyatt went on a closing 14-4 exchange with Tenorio's triple touching off that scoring binge. Bamba was inserted in the second quarter and barely two minutes gone was whistled for his fourth foul, his third offensive foul, this time Mike Umali drawed the charge with 7:59 to go. From there it was an all Hyatt show as Bamba rode the bench for most of the match and when he came back in the third quarter, Hyatt was already up by 24 points. Edsel Mendoza (-F) led Hyatt with 25 points and five rebounds, while Bernard Aquino had 19 markers, five rebounds, six assists, and two steals. Tenorio had his first double-double of the season, finishing with 16 points and 11 rebounds to go with his four assists, while Umali added 16 markers, four rebounds, three assists, and two steals. Bamba had his sixth career double-double game with 27 points and 12 rebounds, but those numbers were not enough to lift Hafadai to victory. He also had two steals and two shot blocks. Peter Iguel added 23 points, seven rebounds, two assists, and one steal, while Remar Mendoza and Mike Olaitiman combined for 23 points, five rebounds, five assists, and three steals.
Courtesy of www.saipantribune.com |
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| Northern Marianas withdrew from the South Pacific Games | |
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| | | The Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Islands Basketball Federation submitted a men team for the upcoming 2007 South Pacific Games which will be held in Samoa but the federation had to withdraw the team due to financial reason. This is of course a very bad news, one year before the 2008 FIBA Oceania Youth Tournament which will be held in Guam.
SPG Participating countries:
American Samoa
Cook Islands
Fiji
Guam
New Caledonia
Palau
Papua New Guinea
Samoa
Solomon Islands
Tahiti
Withdrawals:
Micronesia
Northern Marianas
Marshall Islands |
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| Northern Marianas submit Men and Women teams for the South Pacific Games | |
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| | | The Basketball Association of the Northern Mariana Islands have submitted a Men and a Women team for the upcoming South Pacific Basketball tournament's in Samoa. The SPG comittee will announce the participating teams in the next weeks.
Candidate countries for the 2007 SP Games men tournament:
American Samoa
Federated States of Micronesia
Fiji
Guam
Northern Marianas
New Caledonia
Papua New Guinea
Samoa
Solomon Islands
Tahiti
Palau
Marshall Islands |
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| Northern Youth Basketball League to start in November | |
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| | | The upcoming tournament hosted by the Northern Youth Basketball League is expected to feature about 50 teams-half of them visitors, according to tournament officials. NYBA officials George Cruz and Joe Diaz disclosed that about 25 teams will be arriving for the tournament, with two expected from Rota, and about three to five from Tinian. The rest of the off-islands teams are coming from Guam.
The NYBA action, which will be held from Nov. 18 to Nov. 25, will feature competition in three divisions. Division I include players who are 12-and-under, Division II is reserved for players ages 13-15, and Division III will be for players whose ages are 16-19.
Cruz explained that many teams from Guam are interested in competing after the NYBA sent three teams to the Shell Guam 2005 Drug-Free Thanksgiving Youth Basketball Invitational. The Saipan delegation did very well in the tournament, winning the titles in the two younger age groups and placing first runner-up in the 16-19 age group.
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| Microl-Toyota slips past Aqua, 90-89 | |
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MICROL-Toyota snapped Aqua Resort Club’s winning run after pulling off a 90-89 victory last Thursday in the 6th Mobil Oil Marianas Co-ed Invitational Basketball League at the Gilbert C. Ada Gym.
The win put Toyota in a tie for second place with Aqua, which absorbed its first loss in five games. McDonald’s is the only undefeated squad in the nine-team field with a 3-0 record.
James Abuy drilled crucial 3-pointers in the fourth quarter, Joelan Mendoza canned important free throws and center Marlon De Dios made one big defensive stop to give Toyota its fourth win in a row.
With Toyota down by three, 74-71, going into the last three minutes of the match, Abuy buried back-to-back triples to steal the lead, 77-74, going into the last two minutes of the match.
Toyota hung on to the lead with Mendoza scoring on two free layups and shooting 3-of-4 from the 15-foot line, 86-84, with less than a minute left in the game.
A baseline jumper from Abuy gave Toyota more distance, 88-84, with 52 seconds remaining on the clock.
Aqua quickly inbounded the ball and Toyota had a defensive lapse, when the latter allowed Mark Cecilia an easy layup in the middle moving the former within two, 88-86, with 48 seconds left in the game.
Abuy missed on Toyota’s next offensive set giving Aqua a chance to tie or win the game.
Aqua sued for time to set up a play, but Eric Dalangin failed to deliver. The Aqua forward drove to the basket against De Dios, who stood his ground in the paint raising both arms to block the shot. De Dios failed to swat the ball, but his presence was enough to intimidate Dalangin, who lost the ball on the baseline, with 34 seconds left in the game.
After a big stop, De Dios with the 24-seconds shotclock winding down, drove to the left baseline and nailed a reversed layup giving Microl a 90-86 lead, with 11 seconds left in the match.
Aqua pushed the ball and Dalangin spotted Cecilia on the right baseline. Cecilia received the pass and tried for a 3-pointer and missed. But he was given two free throws, as Abuy was called for a technical foul for unsportsmanlike conduct after shouting and distracting the Aqua guard when he attempted the 3-pointer.
Cecilia muffed the first charity and drilled the second one to move Aqua within three, 90-87.
Toyota inbounded the ball from the baseline and Dalangin stole the possession and connected on a jumper to cut the lead to one, 90-89. But Aqua ran out of time as there was only .06 remaining on the clock and Toyota had possession.
Connie Camacho topscored for Toyota with 25 points, while Abuy contributed 20. Kevin Cequean chipped in 16.
Dalewin Cortez paced Aqua with 30 points, but was held to only four points in the fourth period as he had limited touches on the ball in the payoff quarter. Dalangin added 19, while Barbo had 15 markers.
In the second game, defending champion Fiesta Resort easily cruised to its fourth win in six games after whipping Saipan Ice, 120-84.
Scores:
First Game
Microl-Toyota 90—Camacho 25, Abuy 20, Cequean 16, Cecilia 11, Mendoza 7, De Dios 6, Catalla 5.
Aqua 89—Cortez 30, Dalangin 19, Barbo 15, Ruluked 5, Domingo 4, Bojocan 4, Johanes 4, Cecilia 3, Velez 2.
Quarterscores: 26-21, 40-46, 67-64, 90-89
Second Game
Fiesta 120—Mariko 20, Esdrelon 16, Alipala 15, Macoto 14, Jinang 14, Seman 11, Carino 6, Calag 6, Opone 4, Alegre 2.
Saipan Ice 84—Pambid 32, Dela Torres 23, Mariano 19, Abadilla 9.
Quarterscores: 28-18, 51-32, 83-52, 120-84
(Courtesy of Variety News)
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| Microgames: the recap | |
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The Northern Marianas Islands was awardded to host the 2006 Microgames Basketball Tournament when Yap has been devasted by a hurricane last year. The small island made a wonderful job to be ready to host the event and the national team wanted to celebrate that with a medal. Unfortunatly, the CNMI missed the semifinals for a couple of points and only got then 5th place. Let's make a recap of the CNMI games in this tournament.
Pool phase:
CNMI - Chuuk: 106-72
In the opening game, CNMI was just too good for Chuuk. Thanks to the home-crowd, the Northern Marianas reached half-time on a 56-33 lead. Chuuk managed to cut down this lead to 16 points but CNMI won the last quarter 30-12 to seal its win. Fred Pelisamen posted 23pts 10/20FG 7rbs, Mel Manibusan added 15pts 7/11FG 10rbs and Dan Barcinas recorded 12pts 6/11FG 8ast and 6st.
CNMI - Kosrae: 54-62
The game that broke CNMI's run for a medal. The Northern Marianas was leading 45-44 after three quarter but a 9-18 final period caused the loss. If CNMI had won this one, they would have secured a spot in the semis. Mark Wallace scored 16pts 7/13FG 10rbs, John Sablan added 11pts 4/7FG and Fred Pelisamen netted 10pts 4/14FG.
CNMI - Palau: 67-65
The host nation needed a large win to reach the semifinals but Palau never let the game go out of reach. CNMI managed to win the game but the team is eliminated due to a bad point-average against Kosrae and Palau. Mark Wallace was the game's leading scorer with 21pts 5/11FG 10rbs, Fred Pelisamen added 20pts 6/13FG and Mel Manibusan chipped in with 10pts 3/8FG 10rbs.
Classification games:
CNMI - Yap: 95-77
Despite being eliminated from the medal race, the Northern Marianas wanted to end their tournament with a good note, they defeated Yap to qualify for the 5th place game. Mark Wallace scored 27pts 10/20FG 11rbs, Fred Pelisamen recorded 15pts 6/11FG and Jeremy Sablan posted 15pts 7/14FG 13rbs.
CNMI - Chuuk: 75-86
The Northern Marianas has to face again Chuuk in the 5th place game and again CNMI came out of the game as winner. They shot better (51.% to 28.7%FG) and took more rebounds (61-52). The Northern Marianas islanders should be very disapointed, they dominated these classification games and could have done something great in the real playoffs! Mark Wallace again top-scored with 19pts 7/11FG 6rbs, Fred Pelisamen netted 14pts 7/10FG and Mel Manibusan recorded 13pts 5/9FG 10rbs.
Players recap:
This team should have won a medal in this tournament, behind Guam and Palau the CNMI could have claim the Bronze medal but the team only reached the 5th place. Mark Wallace really was a standout player for the CNMI in this tournament, he's got the whole package. He could have been named tournament's MVP if his team managed to claim a medal. Fred Pelisamen was a valuable second option, he always made good games and was very reliable. Mel Manibusan, Jeremy Sablan and Oscar Ada were the strong men inside. Manibusan was the more prolific sco |
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| Microgames: The best players | |
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| | | During one week, the countries of the Micronesia region faced each other in the 2006 Microgames Basketball Tournament. Guam proved that this team is the best at this level, guamese Andrew Borja truly deserve our MVP award for his great plays during this tournament in the Northern Marianas Islands. Let's see who were the other great players there.
Awards:
MVP: Andrew Borja (Guam)
All-Microgames First-team:
Jine Han (Guam)
Andrew Borja (Guam)
Yutaka Gibbons (Palau)
Gabriel Lait (RMI)
Mark Wallace (CNMI)
All-Microgames Second-team:
Anthony Thacker (Guam)
Sunshine Soalablai (Palau)
Alfred Vitug (Guam)
Ravin Narruhn (Chuuk)
Michael Williams (Palau)
mentions:
Sandy Fejeran (Guam), Robert Pinho (RMI), Freddy Kibby (Kosrae), Morri Money (Yap), Kelvin Sam (Pohnpei)
Stats Leaders:
Points:
Kelvin Sam (Pohnpei) 21.2pts
Morri Money (Yap) 19.4pts
Mark Wallace (CNMI) 19.0pts
Freddy Kibby (Kosrae) 18.5pts
Gabriel Lait (RMI) 18.3pts
Ravin Narruhn (Chuuk) 18.0pts
Yutaka Gibbons (Palau) 17.3pts
Fred Pelisamen (CNMI) 16.4pts
Robert Pinho (RMI) 16.3pts
Keitani Graham (Chuuk) 15.4pts
Rebounds:
Freddy Kibby (Kosrae) 11.3rbs
Branson Amida (Pohnpei) 11.2rbs
Reid Rikrik (Palau) 9.3rbs
Ravin Narruhn (Chuuk) 9.0rbs
Andrew Ruepong (Yap) 8.6rbs
Assists:
Dan Barcinas (CNMI) 5.2ast
Wayne Anjain (RMI) 4.5ast
Cassidy Shoniber (Pohnpei) 4.4ast
Michael Williams (Palau) 4.3ast
Mark Wallace (CNMI) 3.6ast
Blocks:
Oscar Ada (CNMI) 2.2bs
Fred Kibby (Kosrae) 2.0bs
Wallace Jacob (Pohnpei) 1.4bs
Steals:
Kilafwa Palik (Kosrae) 4.5st
Terrence Kibby (Kosrae) 4.5st
Jon Akapito (Chuuk) 4.4st
Turnovers:
Kelvin Sam (Pohnpei) 7.8to
Kilafwa Palik (Kosrae) 7.7to
Wayne Anjain (RMI) 5.7to
%FG:
Manuel Borja (Guam) 64.7%
Andrew Borja (Guam) 60.6%
Alfred Vitug (Guam) 56.7%
%3PTS:
Mark Wallace (CNMI) 52.9%
Yutaka Gibbons (Palau) 52.4%
Morri Money (Yap) 52.2%
%FT:
Yutaka Gibbons (Palau) 90.9%
Robert Pinho (RMI) 87.5%
Gabriel Lait (RMI) 82.4%
Minutes played:
Terrence Kibby (Kosrae) 36.0min
Gabriel Lait (RMI) 34.7min
Jon Akapito (Chuuk) 34.6min
Each players should have played at least in 3 games to be ranked
He should have attempted at least 2 free-throws or three-point shots per game, or 4 field-goals per game to be ranked |
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| Microgames: Guam won the Gold over Palau | |
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| | | The championship game was not that easy for the all-mighty Guam but the team managed to secure a 5-point victory over Palau to get another Gold medal in the Microgames. In the other games of this final day, the Marshall Islands took the Gold over Kosrae and Kelvin Sam made the best individual performance of the tournament with 44pts in a classification game over Yap!
Gold medal game:
Guam - Palau: 77-72
Guam continues its reign on the Micronesian region with another Gold medal in the Microgames. But this year Palau forced the guameses to earn it the hard way, the game was close until the last minutes but thanks to a deeper bench, Guam managed to dominate a tired Palau team. Yutaka Gibbons was the game's leading scorer with 22pts 7/19FG while his teamate Sunshine Soalablai added 19pts 6/18FG. For Guam, Dennis Camacho recorded a double-double with 16pts 4/17FG 17rbs and Joseph Blas netted 14pts 4/11FG.
Bronze medal game:
Marshall Islands - Kosrae: 85-75
A game for the pride. Kosrae was the last remaining team of the 4 micronesians states but they were unable to defeat a strong Marshall Islands side. The RMI provided a great offensive game, a lot of outside shots and a good defense. One year after playing in the South Pacific Mini-Games, the Marshalleses are rewarded with a Bronze medal at the Micronesian level. The players stats were unavailable when I wrote this post.
5th place:
CNMI - Chuuk: 86-75
The host nation was fustrated to miss the semifinals and tried hard to secure the 5th place of the tournament, they reached the half-time break on a 45-29 lead and shot for 51.5%FG during the entire game. Mark Wallace led his team with 19pts 7/11FG, Fred Pelisamen added 14pts and Mel Manibusan recorded 13pts 10rbs. Ravin Narruhn posted 23pts 9/17FG 10rbs for Chuuk, Keitani Graham netted 22pts and Jon Akapito added 12pts.
7th place:
Pohnpei - Yap: 83-77
Yap was leading 65-54 after three period but Pohnpei came from behind to avoid the last rank in this tournament. Pohnpei won this game because of one man: Kelvin Sam who recorded a tournament-high 44pts 19/38FG! His teamate Cassidy Shoniber added 11pts. Morri Money top-scored for Yap with 27pts 8rbs while Eric Ruepong scored 18pts 7rbs.
Final Standings:
1- Guam
2- Palau
3- Marshall Isl
4- Kosrae
5- CNMI
6- Chuuk
7- Pohnpei8- Yap
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| Smith hoping to see NMI team in FIBA Oceania youth caging | |
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| | | FIBA Oceania secretary general Steve Smith is hoping that the NMI will send a team in next year’s FIBA Oceania Youth Tournament if Guam wins the bid for the hosting of the 20-and-under caging.
“Guam has submitted its bid to host next year’s FIBA Oceania Youth Tournament and I there’s a big chance that they might win,” Smith said.
Smith was on Saipan for more than a week to supervise the Micronesian Games basketball tournament. Before the Micro Games, the FIBA official talked to Variety and said he was a bit sad that the commonwealth did not make it to this year’s youth tournament.
“But I understand because it’s quite expensive to go to New Zealand. I just hope that when Guam hosts the tournament, CNMI will send a team there as it would not be that expensive to go to Guam,” Smith added.
Basketball Association of Northern Mariana Islands vice president Elias Rangamar said that although he is happy that Guam is likely to host the youth caging, he could not give BANMI’s commitment for next year’s tournament at this early.
Rangamar said that the BANMI board will be meeting next week and they might discuss the FIBA tournament along with the Pacific Games next year.
But Rangamar said that if the board decides to send a team to Guam for the 20-and-under caging sometime in October next year, the selection of the squad and the fundraising must start early.
This year’s FIBA Oceania Youth Tournament will be held in Waitakere, Henderson in Auckland from October 15 to 21.
The Saipan-based Northern Youth Basketball Association was supposed to compete in the New Zealand tournament, but financial constraints prevented the NYBA from participating in the youth caging.
Twenty-four teams were originally nominated for the tournament last year and after a few months, FIBA Oceania made a cut selecting only 16.
Smith said that last January, they made the final selection of eight teams. Making it to the list are Australia, New Caledonia, American Samoa, Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Tahiti, Guam and host New Zealand.
The New Zealand Basketball Federation will shoulder only the accommodation and meal costs of each team.
Each squad is allowed to bring only 10 players, one coach, one manager and one referee.
(courtesy of Variety News)
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