Guam flexes muscles as MBT starts

The Guam national junior team crushed the opposition at the start of the boys 17-and-under Micronesian Basketball Tournament yesterday at the Gilbert C. Ada Gymnasium.

The U.S. territory beat CNMI 2 and Saipan 2 by an average of 91 points, as a shell-shocked local crowd could only marvel at the height and speed of the visitors against seemingly overmatched home teams.

Guam first took to the floor and hammered CNMI 2, 118-85. The southerners took an almost comedic 35-1 lead after the first quarter and then padded that some more at the half, 70-7.

It was an old-fashioned beat down as Guam, which have at least three six-footers to patrol the paint and an array of sharpshooters, took a 92-9 advantage after three quarters before coasting to the 93-point victory.

Saipan 2 didn’t fair any better against the powerhouse squad, as C.J. Morales and company went down 4-23 after the first quarter.

Guam continued to floor the accelerator in the second and took a 44-6 lead at the break. The lead would then balloon to 76-11 after three quarters.

Instead of loosening up on defense in the fourth quarter, the U.S. territory continued to press and harass the hapless Saipan 2 squad of coach Joe Diaz.

As a result, Saipan 2 was blanked in the payoff period and lost by 89 mammoth points.

In other games yesterday, CNMI 1 edged a fighting Tinian team, 67-64. The former took the first quarter, 16-14, before extending that lead to 33-29 at the half.

Tinian, however, came storming back at the start of the second half and took the driver’s seat, 48-46. CNMI 1, however, regrouped in the final 10 minutes of the game to pull out the three-point victory.

Palau also won its debut after beating Saipan 1, 77-66. Saipan 1 actually took a 17-15 lead after the first quarter, but Palau edged them as the halftime buzzer sounded, 31-30.

Palau then got it rolling in the third, outscoring Saipan 1, 21-13, to take a 52-43 advantage into the payoff period. Scoring went up in the final 10 minutes of the ballgame with Palau scoring two more points than the home team to win by 11 markers.

Results of the CNMI 1-Palau and Saipan 1-CNMI 2 games were not available as of press time.

Women’s action also got going yesterday with CNMI 1 taking on CNMI 2 at the Marianas High School Gymnasium. The second women’s match featured Tinian against Guam, also at MHS. Results of those two matches will be published in tomorrow’s issue of the Saipan Tribune.

Last Sunday, the 17-and-under MBT held its opening ceremony at the Ada Gym with no less than officials of the organizing Basketball Association of Northern Mariana Islands addressing the assembled crowd the importance of age group competition and grass roots development in the sport of basketball.