Blue Haus leads 3 teams into playoffs; 2 to contest last spot

Blue Haus’ Reymark Castro drives against a Padrinos Tuesday Club defender during the open division game in the Legends Sports Association Invitational Basketball League last Sunday at the Koblerville Basketball Court. (MARK RABAGO)

Undefeated Blue Haus will be joined in the playoffs by Chang Ming Market and JTM Saipan, while NAPA Auto Parts and Pacific Best Choice will have a one-game playoff for the last spot in the open division of the Legends Sports Association Invitational Basketball League.

Blue Haus completed the regular season with a perfect 9-0 mark after brushing aside Padrinos Tuesday Club, 89-79, last Sunday at the Koblerville Basketball Court.

The top seed in the Final Four wasted no time and immediately doubled Padrinos Tuesday Club in the opening quarter, 32-16, before settling for a 55-34 spread at halftime. 

Padrinos Tuesday Club made a game of in the third as Blue Haus relaxed a bit before doing just enough at the endgame to carve out the 10-point win.

Douglas “Spider” Schmidt again led Blue Haus with 28 points, while Brandon Talania and Kelvin Fitial added 16 and 14 markers, respectively.

John Wijangco paced Padrinos Tuesday Club in its fifth loss in nine games with 24 points with Mike Aparte and Joel Javier tossing in 19 and 15 points. 

In the only other match played last weekend, Pacific Best Choice caught NAPA Auto Parts in a tie for fourth place after routing Marianas Health Services, 70-54.

Pacific Best Choice couldn’t really shake off MHS in the first half, but gained some distance against the already eliminated team at the start of the second half and eventually won by 16 points.

Brian Natividad sizzled all game long for Pacific Best Choice with 23 points, while Lionel Ibe was the high-point man with 19 markers for MHS, which dropped to 4-5.

In other games, NAPA Auto Parts secured the knockout game against Pacific Best Choice after its walkover win over Vizion Insurance (2-7). Also winning by forfeit were Pepoy’s Rest Cafe (2-7) and Chang Ming Market (8-1) after Al-Ger Manpower (0-9) and JTM Saipan (6-3) players didn’t even bother to show up.

The NAPA Auto Parts-Pacific Best Choice one-game knockout match is set for this Sunday starting at 9am at the Koblerville Basketball Court.

Blue Haus 89 – Schmidt 28, Talania 16, Fitial 14, N. Mateo 9, Castro 8, Esdrelon 7, D. Mateo 7.

Padrinos Tuesday Club 79 – Wijangco 24, Aparte 19, Javier 15, Agustin 8, Mamaril 8, Rivera 5.

Scoring by quarters: 32-16, 55-34, 73-60, 89-79. 
Pacific Best Choice 70 – Natividad 23, Chua 11, Bobades 8, Isip 6, Hipolito 6, Camacho 5, Hernandez 4, Augusto 3, Palermo 2, Ramas 2.
Marianas Health Services 54 – Ibe 19, Cruz 9, Sapo 8, Saplan 8, Ogarto 5, Ramon 3, Ulloa 2.
Scoring by quarters: 19-14, 37-30, 56-41, 70-54.