Saipan Tribune

Thursday, May 23, 2013

Wednesday, March 06, 2013

Sexy Boys wins; Maplas leads JWS

The Sexy Boys boosted its chances for an outright semis seat in Division B of the 2013 DLX/Anchor Strong Invitational after dominating Servitek, 72-62, last Monday night at the Gualo Rai Basketball Court.

The Sexy Boys improved to a 6-2 record, snapping its two-game losing skid and taking second place behind the undefeated Adobo (7-0). The Top 2 teams in the 10-squad field will gain automatic semis spots, while the next four will battle for the last two Final Four berth. The bottom four teams will be eliminated. Adobo has already secured one of the semis seat and the Sexy Boys will battle the last Final Four ticket against Chinatown (6-3), and Maplas La Mani (4-3).

Maplas played in the second game last Monday against JWS (2-4), but the match was rained-out with the former ahead, 54-49, 9:33 left in the fourth quarter.

In the curtain-raiser, the Sexy Boys got double figures from five players en route to the 10-point win. John Larot paced the Sexy Boys with his 14 markers, Ardel Tumbaga added 12, Pat Tinio chipped in 11, and Robert and Ray Deleon Guerrero contributed 10 apiece. Herbert Maranan had 8 to complete the Sexy Boys' balanced scoring.

Only John Capuyon Sr. and Art Salazar scored in twin digits for Servitek, which fell to a 1-5 record and is likely to miss the playoffs. Capuyon had a game-high 26 markers, while Salazar logged 10.

Servitek scored no more than 20 points in each quarter to hand the easy win to Sexy Boys, which built a 19-10 cushion with all its eight players lighting up the scoreboard in the opening quarter.

The Sexy Boys continued to spread the ball well in the second period to increase the advantage to double digits at halftime, 39-28. The second half was the same story, as the Sexy Boys got contributions from every player it fielded in the game, while Servitek leaned heavily on Capuyon.

In the second game, Maplas wiped out JWS' halftime lead to move close to its fifth win.

JWS was on top at the break, 39-31, but fell prey to Maplas' pressure defense in the third quarter and the latter went on to grab the lead, 52-48. Maplas outgunned JWS in the third canto, 21-9, as the latter was held to four field goals and a lot of turnovers. Josephus Aguilar anchored Maplas' third quarter attack, scoring 11 points, including a triple in the closing seconds of that canto.

Then in the fourth quarter, Maplas scored the first basket off Dennis Morales' fastbreak layup before the referees stopped play as rain began to pour. It rained for more than 15 minutes and teams agreed to reschedule the game, as it was already 10pm.

First Game

Sexy Boys 72 - Larot 14, Tumbaga 12, Tinio 11, Ro, Deleon Guerrero 10, Ra. Deleon Guerrero 10, Maranan 8, Tangcoy 1.

Servitek 62 - Capuyon 26, Salazar 10, Webb 6, Mateo 6, Esconde 4, Detera 4.

Scoring by quarters: 19-10, 39-28, 55-46, 72-62.