G-Rollers, Micro Games teams take spotlight

The Garapan Rollers family had a lot to celebrate about this past week, as they won the championship in all three divisions of the 2006 Northern Youth Basketball Association.

In the season finale played one after the other on Monday, G-Rollers II got the better of sister team G-Rollers I to take the 12-and-under age group title in a score by four points, 28-24.

The 14-and-under division championship was no less important, as G-Rollers I made mincemeat of the only non-Garapan squad to make it the championship round and carved out a 43-33 win against the CTSI Logistics-backed House of Manhoeben Saints.

Everyone was on the edge of their seats, meanwhile, in the finals of the 16-and-under age group, as G-Rollers II and G-Rollers I gave the crowd that assembled at the Garapan Basketball Court a game for the ages, with G-Rollers II escaping with the 62-61 victory on a buzzer-beating 3-pointer from Preston Basa.

With the 6th Micronesian Games less than a month away, local sports associations also announced the composition of teams that will represent the islands in the quadrennial event set here on Saipan from June 23 to July 2.

After naming the men’s a few months back, the Marianas Amateur Table Tennis Association picked veteran Jean Shi and up-and-coming players Lucita Pasana, Rose Agulto, and Siri Welch for the women’s team.

Golf also named its 10 members with Jess Wabol, Joe “Kamikaze” Camacho, Sasaki Oliver, Jeff Taylor, and Tony Satur making up the men’s team and the mother-and-daughter tandem of Noriko and Yuko Togawa, Shiori Onoue, Aya Matsumoto, and Delle Grandinetti taking the cudgels for the women’s side.

CNMI National Women’s Basketball Team coach Elias Rangamar shortly followed suit and named Connie Camacho, Pearl Palacios, Chelsea Ruluked, Dena Ngirchongor, Arcy Moncrief, Tanya Cabrera, Vanessa Diaz, Liamwar Rangamar, Eva Ito, Beverly Igitol, Emy Oiterong, and Nicole Lebria to the team.

The week also saw the Inaugural Filipino Community Church Inter-Color Basketball League conclude its Final Four with Jeremiah and Ezekiel advancing to the finals after beating Nehemiah and Isiah, respectively.

The 25th Annual DFS Micronesian Tennis Championship also finished its first week over the weekend with Ji Hoon Heo leading the parade of winners by topping the boys’ 13-and-under division.