Previous Story
Japanese youth cagers to test mettle of NMI bets
|
Posted on Mar 25 2009
Japan’s Settsu Red Impulse Basketball Club arrived on Saipan yesterday and will see action in the two-day Settsu-Saipan Friendship Basketball Tournament at the Marianas High School Gymnasium.
The Osaka-based club will be fielding two teams in the tournament, namely its girls 14-and-under team and boys 16-and-under squad. The team is composed of 12 female and six male players.
Joining the Settsu Red Impulse cagebelles in the girls’ 14-and-under division competition are the MISO Junior Varsity All-Stars, Hopwood Junior High School’s Hilitai, Chacha Oceanview Junior High’s Lancheros.
Settsu’s female players will be dueling Hopwood’s Hilitai in the first game of the tournament today at 9am, while the Lancheros will battle the MISO All-Stars in the fourth match of the day at 3:30pm. Winners of the two matches will face in the finals tomorrow at 10:30am.
In the boys’ 16-and-under division, the visitors will collide with the MHS Dolphins today at 10:30am. The two other teams entered in the boys’ 16-and-under division are MISO’s back-to-back champion Saipan Southern High School and Kagman High School.
The Rays and Ayuyus will square off in the third game today at 2pm. It will be a sort of a rematch for the two teams that met in the MISO junior varsity caging finals last year. Southern won the title game, 84-63.
The boys’ 16-and-under championship match is set for tomorrow at 9am.
After all four games in the first day of the tournament, home teams and Basketball Association of Northern Mariana Islands will be hosting a BBQ dinner for the visitors at the Doak Pavillion/Children’s Playground in Susupe, across MHS.
BANMI’s Gabriel White, who is one of the organizers of the tournament, said the after-the-game party will give the hosts and visitors time to exchange information about their respective countries.
The next day, organizers will also host a luncheon and awards ceremony at 12nn at MHS.
White said BANMI is hoping that this tournament will be the start of the association’s long-term friendship with Settsu Red Impulse Basketball Club.
“Also, we are hoping that in the next few years, this friendship tournament will grow and attract more teams from Japan,” White said.
