Guam cage belles beat CNMI 1

  Guam used its height and heft advantage to the hilt in dealing CNMI 1 its first loss, 103-69, in the Micronesian Basketball Tournament, as the girls 17-and-under division wrapped up its round-robin games Wednesday night at the Marianas High School Gymnasium.

Despite the loss, CNMI 1 still finished second in the standings and joined its archrival in the crossover semifinals starting today at the Gilbert C. Ada Gymnasium.

CNMI 1 will take on No. 3 CNMI 2 starting at 4pm, while undefeated Guam will square off against winless and fourth seed Tinian in the other semis pairing earlier in the day at 10am.

Guam started out like a house on fire, leading CNMI 1 18-8 after one period of play thanks to the 10 combined points of Kali Benavente and Destiny Castro.

CNMI 1 wasn’t too shabby in the opening period, as it got 3 points apiece from Krizandra Gozon and Jamie Mendoza.

The U.S. territory, however, began to pull away come the second canto, as Benavente erupted for 6 and inside player Kara Duenas added 4 to help Guam to a 37-22 advantage at the halftime break.

CNMI 1 started the third with more resolve and managed to keep Guam off the boards, triggering their own fastbreak opportunities. More often than not though, those chances resulted in misfires.

After keeping their deficit to the 14- to 16-point range most of the third, the wheels came off CNMI 1 in the final minutes of the period as Guam established a 67-46 advantage going into the fourth and final quarter.

Duenas again submitted 6 and Rayonna shot 4 for Guam in the period, while CNMI 1 center Rachel Abrams had 8 and sharpshooter Mendoza added 7.

In the fourth, Duenas went nuts from inside-rolling to the basket for layups and putting back missed shots-as Guam really tore the game wide open.

Joylyn Pangilinan also got in on the action, firing 9 of her 12 points in the final 10 minutes as Guam went on to win by 34 points.

Duenas top-scored for Guam with a game-high 27 points, while Castro and Benavente added 21 and 14 markers in support.

Mendoza paced the CNMI 1 with 17, including another 7 in the payoff period, before fouling out. The team’s heart and soul Liamwar Rangamar, however, was limited to 12 points.

In the earlier girls game, CNMI 2 withstood Regene Palacios’ 37-point explosion to beat Tinian.

Amazingly, all 37 points of Tinian was scored by Palacios but that wasn’t enough as CNMI 2 totaled 43 as a team. The win allowed CNMI 2 to take the No. 3 seed. It was led by the 8 points apiece of Chave Alipio and Karlene Reyes.

Guam 103 – Duenas 27, Castro 21, Benavente 15, Bunto 13, Pangilinan 12, Quitugua 8, Yeban 4, Rupley 2, Mendiola 1.

CNMI 1 69 – Mendoza 17, Rangamar 12, Rios 11, Abrams 8, Gozon 9, Ito. 4

Scoring by quarters: 18-8, 37-22, 67-46, 103-69.