Guam routs Palau to take No. 1 seed

The Guam U17 national team took the No. 1 seed in the playoffs after bowling over Palau, 82-57, Wednesday night in the boys 17-and-under Micronesian Basketball Tournament at the Gilbert C. Ada Gymnasium.

It was the sixth victory in as many games for the U.S. territory, which will take on No. 4 seed Tinian (3-3) in today’s first boys semifinals at 12pm at the Ada Gym.

CNMI 1, which finished second in the boys tourney with a 5-1 win-loss card, will square off against No. 3 Palau in the other Final Four pairing beginning 6pm. CNMI 1 beat Palau in the first round, 91-78, back on Monday with the latter falling primarily due to a spree of turnovers.

Palau, however, showed none of the tentativeness in their game against Guam Wednesday night.

Even after almost being skunked in the first quarter, 17-2, Palau got on the grill of Guam cagers and played smash-mouth basketball most of the game.

Palau was able to make a match of it in the second, as Marvic Ngchar got hot from outside, making 15 of his 19 total points in the quarter as Palau somewhat narrowed their deficit and were down by only 26-41 at the break.

Guam continued to feel the heat at the start of the second half, as Palau threw everything they had on the powerhouse team.

The game was so physical at one point that Guam leading scorer Sammy Setik took offense on how a Palau player was screening him off on defense that he charged the offending player before referees and cooler heads prevailed.

Back in the game, Medermel Yaoch connected twice from long range and Ngchar added 4 more to his total as Palau put a scare on Guam as they were down by only 12, 41-53, with only 10 minutes left to play.

Setik, however, settled the ship in the payoff period, as the cat-quick guard fired eight of his team-high 18.

And with Jonathan Onedera and Bruce Merrill tossing in 6 points apiece for good measure, Guam was able to get their groove back and coasted to the 25-point victory.

Onedera went on get scoring runner-up honors for Guam with 14 points, while the normally high-scoring frontline duo of Rashaun Blas and Michael Sakazaki were limited to 12 and 11, respectively.

Ngchar was the game’s high-point man with 19, while Yaoch and Edward Baysa added 12 apiece in the loss.

In other games Wednesday, CNMI 1 routed Saipan 1, 97-59; Tinian go the better of Saipan 2, 87-68.

Yesterday’s three remaining matches, meanwhile, saw Palau smother Saipan 2, 87-33; Tinian beat Saipan 1, 83-74; and CNMI 1 take out sister team CNMI 2, 111-54.

Guam 82 – Sammy Setik 18, Onedera 14, Blas 12, Sakazaki 11, Merrill 9, Flores 4, Dimla 4.

Palau 57 – Ngchar 19, Yaoch 12, Baysa 12, Dorado 7, Ubedei 4, Sandbergen 2, Cruz 1.

Scoring by quarters: 17-2, 41-26, 53-41, 82-57.