Make or break for Tinian, Bank of Guam

Staying alive will be the theme in the game between Tinian and Bank of Guam tomorrow as the playoff round in the Inaugural PTI Inter-Government/Business Basketball League continues at the Gilbert C. Ada Gymnasium.

The 2006 champion Tinian and the BOG Express dropped their opening assignments in the playoffs putting them in a must-win situation.

The playoff round has a double-elimination format.

Tinian lost to PTI via forfeit giving the host a free ride to the winners’ bracket. The PTI-Tinian tiff was set for Tuesday night, but the visitors could not make it on time for the game.

The BOG-Tinian match was originally scheduled last night, but the latter requested to play this Saturday, as it would not be able to go to Saipan on weekdays due to work commitment and problems in transportation.

The last trip of the ferry bound for Saipan is around 3pm and it heads back to Tinian at 5pm. The next available trip will be 7am. As much as possible, Tinian players do not want to board a plane to go to Saipan and return home for cost-cutting measures.

The BOG Express has no problem making it to the game, as all their players are based on Saipan and it is slightly favored against the visitors having won their initial meeting in the regular season.

The Express is hoping to recover from a disappointing 82-83 loss at the hands of the Department of Community and Cultural Affairs.

BOG had control of the game, leading by six going into the last two minutes of the game until Elias Rangamar hit a back-breaking triple in the dying seconds of the match to steal the win.

The winner of the BOG-Tinian match will advance to the quarterfinals of the losers’ bracket and face the victor of the Legislature-Department of Corrections tiff.

The Lawmakers and Corrections were scheduled to collide Wednesday night, but the game was reset to Thursday night. Last night’s loser will be eliminated from the tournament.

Tonight, pennant champion Northern Marianas College will try to move closer to a return trip to the finals when it meets Autonomous at 6:30pm.

NMC won easily against the Lawmakers, 82-68, but is expected to have a tougher time against the defending champion Autonomous.

Autonomous also eased past its foe, trouncing Corrections, 82-68

On Monday, DCCA will duel PTI with the winner meeting the victor of the NMC-Autonomous tiff for the first finals ticket.