RBC brings home the bacon

  A small group of Rollers Basketball Club players gathered at the Garapan Basketball Court Thursday afternoon to pose for a group photo with the two championship trophies they won in last week’s 2011 Take Care Thanksgiving Hoop Fest basketball tournament held in Guam.

“It rained some today and technically my players are on a break right now, but we decided to try and gather some players here anyways today. We just want to thank all of our sponsors and supporters once again and hope that our trophies show them that our club is making good progress,” said RBC head coach Joe Diaz.

Diaz added, ”This Guam event gets bigger and bigger every year and I attest that our club is getting more and more atoned to representing Saipan well in off-island competition.

The club entered teams in six of the event’s nine divisions and came home with U14B recreational and U16-U18 coed division championships as well as the U12 coed runner-up plaque.

Notably, the U12 team advanced through its round robin undefeated and held the top seed heading into the finals.

Among the players present Thursday was U16-U18 coed scoring champ and most valuable player Keolani Rios and U14B’s Wilfredo Francisco. Francisco finished second place on the U14B scoring list.

Fifteen-year-old Rios put on quite a show in her second Hoop Fest appearance.

She even got a chance to referee some of the recreational division U12 and U14 games during the tournament.

“I was a little nervous when I was refereeing, but I just zoned out the crowd, which was really loud, and focused on the action,” she said.

On measuring up the competition as a player she added, “Our transition offense was running on all cylinders and we kept the pedal to the metal. It was a great experience playing against Guam and we are looking forward to seeing them again.”

Francisco is 12 years old and really came into his own in his first appearance on the big stage.

“You know, all of these kids look forward to going Guam because I think they see it as a way to make all their hard work pay off. I am really proud of that guy because it was his first trip to Guam and instead of shying away; he stepped big and elevated his game,” said Diaz of Francisco.

Francisco learned the game from his five older brothers and the young forward looks as though he has a growth spurt or three coming in the near future.

“I really liked playing on the court over there and it was great to face the new competition,” said Francisco.

In reaction to his performance he said, ”I wasn’t really scared because of my age, in fact I noticed that I was open a lot so I just took the shots. At first I was surprised that my numbers made the list and then grew a little disappointed that I was one-upped by my friend Jun (Fidelino). It was so much fun though and we all did a great job. Our team shared the ball very well and mixed it up on them good.”

Fidelino, U14B’s MVP C.J. Morales, 14A’s Prince Factor, and now Guam resident and U25’s Manny Matagolai were not present in Thursday’s assembly.

Fidelino tallied 27 points (9.0 avg.) in three games to Francisco’s 26 (8.67 avg.). Morales ran the point and fed the U14B duo, while Factor held his own against some deep U14A competition, finishing with 43 points (14.33 avg.) in three games. Matagolai led a tough U25 field with 49 points (24.40 avg.) in three games and Rios tallied 25 points (8.33) in her three outings.

The RBC gang has been enjoying a break for about a week, after which it is back to practice at the Garapan court.

The club has its U14 Christmas 3-On-3 Family Fun Tournament coming up on Dec.16 and 17. They are also hoping to start up its own youth league, which was sponsored last year by IT&E, around the turn of the calendar year.

In March 2012, coach Diaz is going back to Guam with his U25 Rollers and up to three other Saipan squads to participate in the March Madness Pacific Regional Basketball Championships held at the Anderson Air Force Base’s Coral Reef Fitness and Sports Complex. The Hoopaholics, Ol’Aces, and Proa are the other interested teams. The RBC and Hoopaholics appeared in last year’s event and were invited back as B-division contenders.