Blue Eagle survives Ol’Aces, advances to masters finals

Blue Eagle/Royal Pacific’s Jet Jandoc drives against Ol’Aces’ Gino Libuw in the masters division of the 2nd Annual Saipan Centennial Lions Basketball League last Thursday night at the Civic Center Basketball Court.(MARK RABAGO)

Blue Eagle/Royal Pacific nipped Ol’Aces, 79-76, to advance to the finals of the masters division of the 2nd Annual Saipan Centennial Lions Basketball League last Thursday night at the Civic Center Basketball Court.

Ol’Aces couldn’t have started the game any worse against Blue Eagle, as they went down early and often and found themselves in a big hole, 25-6, after the first 10 minutes of play.

It would go from worse to worst come the second quarter as Blue Eagle continued to pour it on and at one point Ol’Aces was down by 28 whopping points.

Good thing Blue Eagle kind of went cold after that and it was Ol’Aces’ turn to be on target for a change and that saw the Oleai team creep back in and found themselves miraculously down by just 9 points, 41-32, at the half.

Blue Eagle continued to squander their once almost 30-point lead at the start of third, as Chris George nearly tied things up for Ol’Aces’ with his personal 8-point cluster to end the third with his team just down by a manageable 5 points, 50-55.

Ol’Aces continued their march toward redemption in the fourth and final quarter and made it as close as 59-58 on a sweet jumper by comebacking Peter Camacho with 6:37 left in the game.

That served as a prelude to an edge-of-your-seat end to the game as Blue Eagle responded with 4-0 run kicked off by a layup from 6’3” behemoth De Shawn Reign followed by a fastbreak layup from Mark Francisco. 

Ol’Aces power-playing forward Romeo Iginoef retaliated with a moonshot over Reign to make it just a 3-point lead with 5:22 to go, but Andrew Ashburn was fouled on the next play by Iginoef.

“Uncle Drew” missed the second free throw but Reign was there for the putback. Francisco and Joel Javier then had back-to-back-to-back fastbreak forays to make the game seemingly out of reach for Ol’Aces, 72-60, with 3:12 left in the clock. 

After a timeout, George and Gino Libuw morphed into the Splash Brothers and made 3-pointer after 3-pointer. 

Libuw was the first to strike with his Steph Curry impersonation to make it 72-63 a little over 3 minutes and change left.

George made his Klay Thompson bit to make it a 6-point game, 66-72, at the 2:49 mark before Jet Jandoc found Reign underneath the basket to stymie the rally, 74-66.

After a missed shot by Ol’Aces, Ashburn came back with a field goal before Camacho made another midrange to whittle it down to 8 points once again. 

Libuw then made it a 5-point deficit, 71-76, for Ol’Aces when he hit another triple with 1:19 left.

Ashburn answered with a 3-pointer of his own 20 seconds later before a jumper by Camacho made it 79-73 with 48 ticks left on the clock. 

Ashburn made up for an airball with a key block on Camacho with 20 seconds to go, but Libuw was at it again with another 3-pointer with 15 seconds left and Blue Eagle hanging on to just a 3-point lead. 

Blue Eagle played keepaway in the last 14 seconds as Ol’Aces inexplicably didn’t foul to stop the clock. When they did foul with 0.4 seconds to go, it was already all over but the shouting as Blue Eagle escaped with the win.

Ashburn paced Blue Eagle with 16 points, while Reign and Melvin Villarin added 14 and 11 markers, respectively.

Libuw led all scorers with 22 points, while Camacho rode his DeLorean to 16 points with George and Iginoef chipping in 15 and 11 points in the gallant loss by not-so Old Aces.

Blue Eagle now takes on masters division first finals qualifier Blue Haus tomorrow, June 13, starting at 6pm at the Koblerville Basketball Court.

The masters championship will be followed by the finals of the open division between New Changming Market and Martech-Ol’Aces at 7:30pm. Both championship games will be winner-take-all bouts.

Blue Eagle/Royal Pacific 79 – Ashburn 16, Reign 14, Villarin 13, Javier 9, Jandoc 8, Francisco 6, Estolas 5, Rotap 5, Echavez 3.
Ol’Aces 76 – Libuw 22, Camacho 16, George 15, R. Iginoef 11, Rangamar 8, D. Joab 4.
Scoring by quarters: 25-6, 41-32, 55-50, 79-76.