Tinian is govt cage champion

A new champion was crowned as Tinian took home the title of 2006 Inter-Government Basketball League last night via default.

On Monday, Tinian lost to the Department of Public Safety Enforcers, 102-105, in Game 1 of their best-of-three series.

Tinian filed a protest shortly after the game, expressing concerns on a shot clock violation call in overtime.

After reviewing events that occurred during Game 1, as well as basketball rules, officials made a ruling on the protest during a meeting yesterday afternoon at the Gilbert C. Ada Gymnasium conference room.

In an interview yesterday, BANMI vice president Elias Rangamar said he met with league coordinator Joey Dela Cruz, Tinian captain Rudy Borja, and Enforcers captain Elias Saralu.

Rangamar said prior to the meeting, he had met with referees Jess Pacheco and Noel Delos Santos, as well as other officials.

The officials reviewed the call and the reason for protest, and decided to erase the result of Game 1 and resume action with 3:30 remaining in overtime—which was the time the questionable call was made.

The remaining 3:30 of the overtime period was supposed to be played before the start of Game 2 yesterday. However, only Tinian cagers suited up for the scheduled games, resulting in the team winning via forfeit.

The two wins enabled Tinian to sweep the pennant and championship titles, with veteran John Santos taking home the championship most valuable player award after leading his team back from a double-digit fourth quarter deficit with five triples.

“We took a lot of 3-pointers to try to narrow down the deficit,” Santos said during an interview yesterday. “We took the risk, but the shots were falling so we continued to take those shots. It was a tough game and the government league is getting tougher every year.”

Santos stressed that the team had hoped to play last night.

“We rather play the game and lose than not play at all,” he said. “We want to leave it all on the court.”

The Enforcers controlled the first quarter of Game 1, leaning on former National cager Peter Camacho, who scored the team’s first eight points and added another bucket to spearhead a 23-17 run.

Tinian closed the gap and trailed by six, 43-49 at the break, but after going on a 5-0 run to start the third, Tinian fell far behind as Camacho scored another 10 points and Jake Celes, Elias Saralu, and Joe Ito provided big buckets to close the period ahead by 16 points, 76-60.

Santos buried two bombs from long range, J.R. Reyes and Jess Manibusan drove in for two buckets apiece, and Ton Borja hit two triples, the second tying the game at 82-82 with 4:42 remaining in regulation.

Santos came up big again for Tinian from long distance as he was on target for two more triples, with the second shot pulling his team to within two points, 92-94, with 1:39 remaining. Manibusan then came up with the rebound and Tinian worked the ball around before Ian Cruz was found open in the lane for the game-tying basket, 97-97, to force overtime.

No Zone took home third place with cager Ed Diaz also winning the regular season MVP trophy.