Saipan Tribune

Thursday, May 23, 2013

Friday, September 28, 2012

UCC rules Kanoa women's caging

UCC clinched the championship in the 2012 Kanoa Resort Women's Fall Basketball League after downing Kiss My Pass in a winner-take-all finale, 66-54, last Wednesday night at the Gillette Multipurpose Gymnasium.

Lily Williams, Rachel Abrams, Kaylani Lebria, and Kayla Ito, who were part of UCC's starting five joining Madeleine Alegre, played a solid game in the finals to fend off the combined effort of sisters Jeralyn and Jeralyn Castillo. The four UCC starters all scored in double digits and teamed up for 51 points against the 43 of the Castillo siblings.

The Castillo sisters heated up early, giving Kiss My Pass a 10-2 lead. However, Williams did a great job quarterbacking for UCC and the rest of the team recovered in the last half of the first period to even up at the match after 10 minutes of play, 19-all.

Then the second and third quarters became a UCC show and the eventual champions broke away, leading by as much as 19. UCC had a 15-7 scoring binge in the second canto with Denise Samson coming off the bench and contributing 6, while the Castillo sisters accounted for all the points of Kiss My Pass in that period.

In the third, Kiss My Pass was scoreless in the first 6:30, while UCC nailed 18 with Williams making 7 of them. UCC led at 45-26, before Jeraldine Castillo ended Kiss My Pass' drought with a triple.

The third period ended with UCC still comfortably ahead, 52-37, and though Kiss My Pass cut the deficit to as low was 9 in the closing minute of the fourth, the latter ran out of time to overhaul the lead.

Williams top-scored for UCC with her 18 points and though no official record on assists was taken during the game, she had a lot, making drop passes to Abrams, Alegre, and Samson. Abrams chipped in 12, Lebria added 11, and Ito earned 10 markers from her stop-and-pop shots.

Jeralyn Castillo led all scorers with her 23 points, while Jeraldine logged 20, and the siblings were the only two Kiss My Pass players to nail more than two field goals for their team.

Meanwhile, in the battle for third place, IDK Who edged Ichiban, 57-55.

Negahr Rastguiy anchored IDK Who's offense with her 21 points, while Keolani Rios and Angela Iriarte fired 12 each. Shaina Santiago paced IDK Who with her 15 markers.

First Game

IDK Who 57 - Rastguiy 21, Rios 12, Arboliras 12, Iriarte 4, Atalig 4, Diaz 2.

Ichiban 55 - Santiago 15, Santiago 11, Ocampo 7, C. Lizama 7, Pena 6, Gatchalian 5, Echavez 4.

Scoring by quarters: 16-9, 28-25, 43-37, 57-55.

Second Game

UCC 66 - Williams 18, Abrams 12, Lebria 11, Ito 10, Samson 6, Canedo 5, Alegre 4.

Kiss My Pass 54 - Jeralyn Castillo 23, Jeraldine Castillo 20, Ito 4, Pablo 3, Mendoza 2, Lizardo 2.

Scoring by quarters: 19-19, 34-26, 52-37, 66-54.