Saralu runs away with scoring title

Elias Saralu is smiling a lot these days.

Not only has his Department of Public Safety I team advanced to the third round of the playoffs, he also was able to beat out Northern Marianas College sharpshooter Jester Garcia for the 2004 Government Basketball League scoring crown.

The 5’10” forward played in all 11 regular season games for DPS I and piled up a whopping 310 points, good for a 28.8 points per game average.

Saralu tallied not less than 19 markers in all the games he played in the first round and fired a season-high 44 points last Nov. 13, incidentally against Garcia’s NMC team.

The sweet-shooting law enforcer scorched opponents for 30 or more points in four occasions and fired in excess of 20 in 10 of 11 games, failing only to reach that mark last Nov. 19 in a game against Commonwealth Health Center.

Garcia settled for second in the scoring race after the shooting star of the ousted champions wound up with 233 points in nine games for a hefty 25.9 norm per contest. Like Saralu, the 5’6” off guard also reached doubles figures in all the games he played, scoring a season-high 31 points in the match against the Saipan Mayor’s Office last Dec. 15.

Department of Labor forward Steve Rasa finished No. 3 in scoring after powering his way for 241 points in 10 outings, good for 24.1 buckets per ballgame. The 6’1” frontliner didn’t score less than 15 markers in the regular season and pounded NMC with 37 points last Dec. 6.

Department of Community and Cultural Affairs’ Elias Rangamar and Public School System’s Taj Van Buren finished tied at fourth and fifth places.

Rangamar, who was voted MVP of the regular season by the coaches of the league last week, led an overachieving DCCA team in scoring after being good for 20 markers a ballgame. The 5’7” playmaker fired 200 points in 10 games with a season-high 35 against Labor last Jan. 5.

Van Buren, meanwhile, was a Tower of Power for the pennant winners. The 6’4” Brown Bomber came away with 220 points in 11 contests to average 20 markers an outing. The former Pacific Islands Club employee had a monster 28-point effort against Labor last Nov. 29.

The rest of the Top 10 in scoring for the 2004 Government Basketball League, with their averages in parenthesis, were as follows: Procurement & Supply forward/center Jack Palacios (19.8 points per game); Commonwealth Ports Authority guard Edgar Pangelinan (19.3); P&S forward John Palacios (18.9); DPS II center Ned Norita (18.6); and Tinian center/forward Keith Nabors (17.7).

Incidentally, brothers Jack and John Palacios were the only pair of teammates to break into the Top 10 of the scoring list.