Saipan Tribune

Sunday, May 19, 2013

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

RMS Spartan Rebels in Final Four

The Tan Holdings 40th Anniversary Sports Fest Open Basketball Tournament is now down to Final Four with the last team standing to be determined this Friday at the Gillette Multipurpose Gymnasium.

The RMS' Spartan Rebels, Century Hotel's Central Ballers, Chambre Bar's Fast-8, and CTSI Logistics' Hoops made it to the semifinals after the playoff games over the weekend. Friday's opening semis pairing will have RMS taking on Century, while Chambre Bar will face CTSI in the second semis tiff. Winners of the two matches will collide in the winner-take all finals at 7:45pm or after the consolation game.

RMS advanced after ousting Tribes Bar's Rectify, 41-33; Century defeated D&Q International Distributors, 40-26; Chambre Bar routed Docomo Pacific's Cosmos, 41-27; and CTSI knocked off Nami Bar's Girl Power, 41-34.

Ham Hambros carried the bulk of the load for RMS in the first quarterfinal match. His 13 points went with the welcomed 9 markers from Frank Mettao and before they knew it, RMS was positioned just 11 points from victory at halftime, 29-16. Tournament format hands an automatic win to the first team to score 40 points.

Hambros tallied a quick trio of baskets at the start of the second period and left it to Ben Lisua and Jun Norita to bring home the win. Tribes Bar's Paulo Darag and Jack Aranda combined for all but one basket of their team's total output. Hambros topped the field with 16 points.

In the second game, D&Q buried four three-pointers to keep pace with Century. However Paul Camacho and VJ Nakayama combined for 13 points and they got additional baskets from four others as Century still took the lead, 21-17. Century then turned on its burners after the break and ran off with the win.

Chambre Bar's duo, Leo Galarse and Jeff Garcia, only needed 15 minutes to bump off Cosmos in the third pairing.

Galarse was just too much to handle and went to score 21 points and his right hand man, Garcia, added a dozen to help seal the deal. White Capalad managed the other needed buckets in the frame, while Cosmos' Marlon Sison was contained to 13 points in the rout.

Unfortunately the first half score was not recorded in the fourth quarterfinal game, but the results implied it was a pretty close match all the way to the end.

Kelvin Fitial showed off his shooting touch with 15 points to keep CTSI ahead of Connie Camacho and her Nami Bar crew.

The Nami Bar ladies put up a good fight as the match lasted through regulation, but CTSI seemed to always have an answer as JR Barrios, Maverick Itibus, and Walter Mendez came to Fitial's aid to impose the win. Camacho managed 11 on the short end.

This Friday's semifinals will be played under two 15-minute halves with the event's special “race to 40 points” rule still in effect. The championship match will have two 20-minute halves and the “race to 40 points” rule is omitted.

The champion team will take home $400 worth of sports equipment, while $300, $200, and $100 will go to the No. 2 to 4 finishers.

First Game

RMS 41 - Hambros 19, Mettao 9, Ogumoro 8, Lisua 2, Norita 2

Tribes Bar - Darag 16, Aranda 14, De Guzman 2.

Scoring by halves : 29-16, 41-33.

Second Game

Century 40 - JR 9, Santy 8, Nakayama 7, P. Camacho 6, I. Kapwich 4, J. Kapwich 4.

D&Q 26 - Morales 11, De Luna 9, Kwon 6.

Scoring by halves: 26-21, 40-26.

Third Game

Chambre Bar 41 - Galarse 21, Garcia 12, Capalad 8.

Cosmos 27 - Sison 13, Tudela 7, Sablan 5, Sanciangco 2.

Fourth Game

CTSI 41 - Fitial 15, Barrios 10, Itibus 8, Mendez 6

Nami Bar 34 - C. Camacho 11, Johnson 8, Alegre 7, Atalig 7, Abrams 1.