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Saipan Vegas stretches streak to 7
Saipan Vegas’ Preston Basa, right, looks to kick the ball out to his teammates as he faces the defense of The Game’s Jun Javier during their match in the 2019 Atkins Kroll Marianas International Basketball League last Saturday at the Gilbert C. Ada Gymnasium. (Kimberly A. Bautista)
Saipan Vegas is still on a roll, as it notched its seventh consecutive win after pouncing on The Game, 114-73, in the second match in the 2019 Atkins Kroll Marianas International Basketball League last Saturday at the Gilbert C. Ada Gymnasium.
Saipan Vegas went straight for the jugular in the first quarter after exploding for 43 points. Douglas Schmidt, Preston Basa, Aiferson Atan, Coby Santos, and Greg Sablan teamed up in Saipan Vegas’ opening assault with the former scoring 12 points. Basa added 11 markers, 9 of them came from 3-point area, while Aiferson chipped in 8, and Santos and Sablan contributed 6 apiece.
Schmidt, after a hot start, was scoreless in the second period, but still finished strong making 13 more points in the second half to complete Saipan Vegas’ domination and top-score for the league-leading squad.
Preston Basa added three more triples in the last three periods for his 20 points, while Santos, Atan, and Sablan also delivered double figures after posting 18, 12, and 11, respectively.
With Saipan Vegas on point on offense, The Game never recovered from the 18-43 deficit in the first quarter, as it did not help that the latter had limited manpower with only seven players showing up for the match.
Mark Mintac had 26 points to pace the short-handed The Game, which fell to a 2-4 record and is out of the semis race.
Saipan Vegas is already assured of a Final Four seat, along with IT&E, leaving MS Villagomez, Caravan’s, and Bridge Capital to battle for the last two semis tickets.
Caravan’s was scheduled to play its penultimate match in the round-robin regular season last night, as it was set to duel The Game, while MS Villagomez was to take on Aqua Resort.
For Saturday’s pair of games, Saipan Vegas will face Aqua Resort in the curtain-raiser at 6pm, while IT&E will meet Toyota in the second match at 7:30pm.
Saipan Vegas 114—Schmidt 25, P. Basa 20, Santos 18, Atan 12, Sablan 11, Kabiriel 9, Deleon Guerrero 5, Pua 4, E. Basa 4, Libuw 2, Lizama 2, Bondoc 2.
The Game 73—Mintac 26, Fidelino 23, Javier 17, Castro 5, Del Rosario 2.
Scoring by quarters: 43-18, 55-36, 91-54, 114-73.
