K-2 Ballers wins Hoops and Vibes tourney

K-2 Ballers players and coach Tom Pangelinan pose with their plaques and trophies after topping the championship game of the Precinct 5 Hoops and Vibes Basketball Tournament held Saturday night at the Kagman Community Center basketball court. (MARK RABAGO)

K-2 Ballers protected homecourt by winning the Precinct 5 Hoops and Vibes Basketball Tournament at the expense of Young Doom, 55-37, Saturday night at the Kagman Community Center basketball court.

The boys of coach Tom Pangelinan only needed to win Game 1 to annex the championship outright after going undefeated the entire tournament. Despite having only 30 minutes to rest following their semifinals win, K-2 Ballers jumped the gun against Young Doom, who were missing center Frankie Satur.

With Gerald Mamis connecting on two early 3-pointers, K-2 Ballers dominated the first half and immediately erected a double-digit lead. Hulking 6’2” center Garret Mariano also asserted himself inside with the 6’3” Satur sidelined and as a result, K-2 Ballers entered halftime with a 27-14 spread.

The top-seeded team extended their advantage come the start of the second half as the usual suspects—Mamis and Mariano—now joined by Darren Pangelinan wrought havoc on Young Doom’s defenses.

K-2 Ballers point guard Jay Art Palmes goes up for a floater while Young Doom forward Leo Naraja looks on during their finals match in the Precinct 5 Hoops and Vibes Basketball Tournament held Saturday night at the Kagman Community Center basketball court. (MARK RABAGO)

Point guard Jay Art Palmes orchestrated beautifully again for K-2 Ballers but also scored when he’s open. His floater with 6:42 to go made it 43-28 and in the next play he drove before handing it off to Mariano to extend their lead to 17 points.

K-2 Ballers would enjoy their largest advantage at 49-33 with less than 4 minutes to go in the ballgame. Young Doom still won’t give up though and a 3 by women’s national player Angel Roligat trimmed it to 16 points time down to 3:50 in the contest.

National players Leo Naraja and Kyu Aldan tried their best to rally their team in the last two minutes, but the deficit proved too much and time eventually ran out for Young Doom.

Mariano led all scorers with 12 points. He was backstopped by the 10 points apiece of Mamis and Pangelinan. Young Doom was paced by the 14 points of Naraja and the 13 points of Aldan.

After the game, coach Pangelinan congratulated his team for keeping their focus the entire tournament en route to the undefeated run in the competition that was organized by Precinct 5 Rep. Leila Staffler (D-Saipan) and Richard Lizama (D-Saipan).

“They adapted really quick. Not much was needed [in terms of coaching] as everyone was in the right mentality to push forward to not even have a second game. So right now we’re undefeated and pennant champs. Shout out to the boys that they adapted to everything even though we’re shorthanded as we’re playing more minutes than usual. I’m surprised about their pride and their hustle, which is what Kagman is known for.”

Although he didn’t coach them in the Inaugural Agape Anniversary Youth Basketball Tournament that was held a couple of weeks back, Pangelinan acknowledged that his players learned a lot from their third place finish in that competition.

“They were only seven and played against a full bench and finished third place. They’re still holding somewhat of grudge [for losing] and they somehow had a chance to beat somewhat of the same team with their finals opponents having three national players in their roster (including two women’s nationals in Roligat and Destiny Pangelinan].”

All in all, the K-2 Ballers coach said that winning a tournament in Kagman is always the sweetest thing.

“Defending home turf is something big for us. We can’t just leave it as it as we need to provide defense. Defense wins games and we need to have good offense as well. This is actually something new as we never really had [youth basketball] here since Rotary way, way back. At least basketball is getting known again and we do have a lot of courts here including a baseball field so it’s not just about basketball in Kagman,” he added.

K-2 Ballers advanced to the finals following a 45-40 escape of Homies, while Young Doom booked its championship berth following a 37-33 nipping of Utu Bangers.

In the awards ceremony immediately following the finals, Staffler thanked Joeten Enterprises, PHI Pharmacy, McDonald’s of Guam and Saipan, and Mariana’s Fast Food, Inc. for their generous donations of gift certificates and other in-kind items for the tournament.

Mariano was also adjudged the finals MVP and best scorer of the tourney, while teammate Kaipo Dikito was named the top 3-point marksman.

K-2 Ballers 55 – Mariano 12, Mamis 10, Pangelinan 10, Satur 8, Palmes 6, Dikito 6, Gonzales 3.
Young Doom 37 – Naraja 14, Aldan 13, Padayao 6, Roligat 3, Pangelinan 2.
Scoring by halves: 27-14, 55-37.