SIS, GCA win junior varsity crowns

Eventual most valuable player Christopher Camacho played one of his best games of the season to lead Saipan International School to its first championship in the boys’ division.

The Geckos beat Mt. Carmel School, 49-35, in the junior varsity finals in the 2009 Coalition of Private Schools Sports Association Basketball League Friday at the Gilbert C. Ada Gym.

Camacho scored his first basket in the game with a buzzer-beating putback on his own miss. His basket ended the first quarter with the Geckos leading, 16-4.

The sleek all-around player finished with a game high 14 points, including 12 in a decisive 27-12 run that gave the Geckos their biggest lead at 25 points, 41-16, with 1:34 seconds left in the third quarter.

Harrison Smith also scored in double figures with 13 points, 11 of them in the first two quarters. Bo Barry, who was named to the All-Conference Team, chipped in eight points.

Barry was scoreless in the third and fourth, but Alex Chung stepped up, making six points to counter the Knights’ late rally. Rafael Jones added six points to complete The Geckos balance offense.

Christian Mizer, who also made it to the All-Conference Team, scored a team high 13 points, including eight in an 18-6 run that allowed Mt. Carmel to cut the lead to 14 points, 33-47, with just over a minute left in the game.

The Knights ran out of time catching up on SIS and finished as runners-up again for the second straight year.

The Knights advanced to the finals by ousting 2008 champion Grace Christian Academy in the semifinals on Thursday, 55-54. GCA settled for third place.

That win sort of avenged the Knights’ loss to the Eagles in the championship game last year.

SIS, which was third last year, advanced to the finals this time by winning over Seventh Day Adventist via forfeiture .

“We worked hard from day one and had a lot of fun doing it. We played as a team, very unselfish,” said SIS head coach Rick Linkenhelt .

The other members of the new champion team included Crosby Shultz, RJ Knecht, Bill Song, Brian Mailman, Angelo Jones, and Kai Kushihata.

At the end of the finals, league organizers recognized the top individual performers in the junior varsity division. Joining Mizer and Barry in the All-Conference Team were Jin Hon of Calvary Christian Academy, Ken Orejala ofGCA, Justin Poon of Saipan Community School, and Tyler Palacios of SDA.

Kaylani Lebria of Mt. Carmel was named MVP and made it to the All-Conference Team but her the Lady Knights lost to GCA in the finals.

Lebria and the Lady Knights failed to muster enough firepower, as they blew up an early 8-3 first quarter lead, allowing the Lady Eagles to clinch the crown with a 22-14 finals win.

Chezka De Luna scored 10 in a 16-4 run in the last two quarters, as the Lady Eagles limited the Lady Knights to two points both in the third and fourth quarters to foil Mt. Carmel’s upset bid.

De Luna finished with 12 points for the Lady Eagles. Lebria and Carey Demapan had six points each for the Lady Knights.
[B] Girls

GCA 22[/B] – De Luna 12, Connor 4, Mamaril 4, Cristobal 2.

SIS 49[/B] – Camacho 14, Smith 13, Barry 8, R. Jones 6, Chung 6, Kushihata 2.
[B] MCS 35[/B] – Mizer 13, Taguchi 7, Kautz 7, Lee 2, Kim 2, Crisostomo 2, Alvarez 2.
[B] Scoring by quarters:[/B] 16-4, 34-14, 41-20, 49-35.