SIS in finals, GCA, MCS advance too

Saipan International School made it to the finals of both the girls and boys divisions of the 2009 Coalition of Private Schools on Saipan Basketball League, while Grace Christian Academy and Mt. Carmel School advanced, too.

The Lady Geckos secured the first finals seat in the girls division after walloping the GCA Lady Eagles in the semifinals Thursday, 49-17. In the second semis match at the Gilbert C. Ada Gymnasium, the MCS Lady Knights defeated Marianas Baptist Academy to set up a title duel with the Lady Geckos.

The Lady Knights and the Lady Geckos will dispute the championship tomorrow at 3pm at the Ada gym.

SIS will also have a shot at the boys division title after slipping past two rivals in the playoffs. The Geckos first downed the MBA Stormz Thursday, 59-39, and edged the MCS Knights, 58-52, Friday to earn the second finals berth.

The GCA Eagles took the first finals seat in the boys division after whipping Calvary Christian Academy.

GCA automatically gained a semis entry after ruling the regular season with a 9-1 record and was paired against the last seeded CCA Sharks. Mt. Carmel finished second in the regular season with a 7-3 mark, followed by SIS (6-4) and MBA (4-6).

The Geckos had to beat MBA first before advancing to the semis and face Mt. Carmel for the last championship ticket.

The Geckos and the Eagles title match will be played tomorrow at 4:30pm.

In the girls division, the Lady Knights were seeded first in the playoffs after their 5-1 record. SIS came at second with a 4-2 mark, followed by GCA (2-4), and MBA (0-6)

In the GCA-SIS semis pairing, the Lady Geckos held the Lady Eagles to two points in the third period to break the game wide open.

SIS was only ahead by a point after the first period, 8-6, and GCA remained afloat at halftime, behind by only 10 markers, 20-10. But things went from bad to worse for the Lady Eagles at the start of the second half, as only Kallie O’Connor scored for GCA in the third.

O’Connor’s two-pointer was no match against the combined 16-point production of Sarah Johnson, Lila Mailman, and Marya Oestrech. Amber Roberts, Zoe Jewell, and Amy Hudkins added two points apiece in the Lady Geckos’ third-quarter juggernaut for a big 38-12 lead, entering the final canto.

SIS still outgunned GCA in the fourth, 11-5, for the easy semis victory.

SIS 49[/B] – Oestrech 14, Roberts 8, Mailman 8, Camacho 4, Johnson 4, Jones 3, Schultz 2, Jewell 2, Hudkins 2.

SIS 59[/B] – A. Lee 18, Wang 10, Brostom 9, S.J. Lee 7, H. Lee 6, Knecht 5, Graf 2, Barry 2, David 1.
[B] MBA 37[/B] – Jo 13, Samson 6, Sablan 5, Coelho 4, Torres 3, R. Park 2, S.B. Lee 2, K. Park 2.
[B] Scoring by quarters:[/B] 11-12, 19-18, 36-30, 59-37.