Team Prospects, Team Prime are 3×3 Bash champs
Team Prospects, or LeNMI, won the U14 title, while Team Prime was victorious in the U17 division of the Northern Mariana Islands Basketball Federation’s Back 2 School 3×3 Bash last Sunday at the Koblerville Gymnasium.
Team Prospects ousted Saipan Sonic, in a close 10-8 finale of the U14 division.
Team Prospects’ D.J. Apatang, Logan Daniel, Kelvin John, and Leon Duenas teamed up against Saipan Sonic’s Enzo Sasamoto, Dany Defang, Ione Camacho, and Worthy Defang.
Teamwork and communication were what carried Team Prospects as they all had a piece of the basket. Daniel led things off and secured the championships with the winning two points at the end.
He and Apatang put up 3 points each, while Duenas and John followed up with 2 points each. On the other hand, Sasamoto contributed 5 points, while Dany scored 2, and Worthy shot in 1.
In the U17 division, Team Prime’s Lance Lerio, J.P. Pineda, Mikee Mercado, and Kian Helgen took down Rivals’ Austin Diaz, Bruce Tasi, Phillip Rucik, and Anthony Kubo.
Team Prime won, 15-7, off of their better accuracy at the net and team chemistry. Lerio led the team with 7 points, while Helgen scored 4, Pineda put up 3 points, and Mercado got 1 in.
Meanwhile, Tasi and Rucik scored 3, and Diaz put up 1.
The other teams in the U14 division were 4 Basketeers, RoBlocks, Splash City, and MadFlex. In the U17 division, the other teams were Underrated, Peskadivas, Old Spice, and BigBallers.
NMIBF’s Marlene Lumabi said of the bash that while they had hoped for 12 teams in each division, they had seven teams for the U14 division, while they had eight for the U17. “It was a two-day event and the kids definitely had tons of fun! We also got the chance to train our youth table officials and referees,” she said.
The event, she said, “went great. We had a good number of kids out. Also, a lot of fans were out!”
The teams in the tourney, she said, were “very competitive. The kids can see that 3×3 is a lot of endurance, strength, and stamina, so the team with that, came out victorious.”
As for what’s the next 3×3 event, she said, “We would be looking at doing a girls U18 or U23.”
U17 champion Team Prime poses for a group photo with their coaches Mike Mercado, second right, and Joe Diaz, far right, along with NMIBF’s Marlene Lumabi, far left, during the awards ceremony of the Northern Mariana Islands Basketball Federation’s Back 2 School 3×3 Bash last Sunday at the Koblerville Gymnasium.
-NMIBF
U14 champion Team Prospects, or LeNMI, poses for a photo with their coach Dave Apatang, far right, and NMIBF’s Marlene Lumabi, far left, during the awards ceremony of the Northern Mariana Islands Basketball Federation’s Back 2 School 3×3 Bash last Sunday at the Koblerville Gymnasium.
-NMIBF
