Tinian High seizes MISO caging crown

Tinian High School pulled off surprises in the 2011-2012 Marianas Interscholastic Sports Organization Boys Basketball League playoffs en route to winning the championship last Saturday at the Marianas High School Gymnasium.

The Stallions, who competed in the MISO caging only for the second time, were undefeated in the double-elimination playoffs and secured the crown after whipping the MHS Dolphins in the finals, 95-40.

The newly crowned champions are compose of seniors Renz Benghit and Develle Maui, juniors Esteban Borja and Darrius Pettis, sophomore Marc Babauta, and freshmen Marvin Cruz, Henry Sandbergen, Ignacio Borja, and Chris Masga. Keith Nabors, Nathan Aquiningoc, and THS vice principal Eric San Nicolas coach the team.

“We put in a lot of hard work in preparing for this tournament. We practiced against anyone we could find on Tinian and came into this event thinking not so much about our competition, but our system and doing our best. Although we may not have known much about the other teams, none of them saw us coming either,” Nabors said.

Tinian hit the ground running last Friday and crushed the Mount Carmel School Knights, 94-53. The Stallions then whipped Kagman High School Ayuyus in their second game of the day, 87-71.

Last Saturday morning, THS pulled off a 70-68 win over the Saipan Southern High School Manta Rays in upper bracket semifinals and saved plenty of gas in the tank to trot past a winded Dolphins crew in the finale.

The Dolphins also played last Friday and advanced past GCA in opening round, 83-56, before falling short in their first meeting with rival Southern, 58-70. Remarkably, MHS regrouped the next day and won three straight matches for an outside chance for the title. The Dolphins snuck past MCS, 51-46, ousted KHS, 67-53, and then got even with the top-ranked Mantas, 42-39, to arrange a title showdown against the visiting Stallions.

In the finale, Tinian built an early 20-13 lead behind the 10 markers of Marc Babauta. The Stallions then stuffed MHS with just six points in the second quarter to gallop ahead at halftime 52-19. Babauta added 14 more in the second and teamed up with Darrius Pettis in the surge.

MHS never recovered as the count shifted to 84-32, heading into the fourth period. Pettis started the second half with three long balls and Babauta came away with nine points as well in the third quarter to pad the lead.

Babauta ended the match with an impressive 36-point production, while Pettis also had an explosive game, adding 29. Pettis’ 29-game output came less than 24 hours after he fired 37 markers in their two-point semis win over the favored Manta Rays.