Mobil revs up for Final Four

The road to crowning the 2005 champion of the Mobil Oil Mariana Islands Co-ed Invitational Basketball League finished its first stage exactly a week ago and will enter the second phase on June 14.

Making a return to the semifinals stage is defending champion Aqua Resort Club, but unlike last year, the team enters as the fourth-seed and will have to battle pennant champion and No. 1 seed Dai-Ichi Hotel Saipan Beach, while host Mobil and Commonwealth Ports Authority bang heads in the other half of the semifinals.

The picture clears up a bit on Tuesday, June 14, after CPA and Mobil square off at 6pm, while Dai-Ichi and Aqua Resort take the hard court at 7:30pm.

Dai-Ichi enters the playoffs as the top seed after finishing the regular season with an impressive 8-1 win-loss card, including an 82-79 win over Aqua Resort in a down-the-wire game that concluded the regular season.

Dai-Ichi got another huge lift from go-to-guy Elmer Esdrelon, who played consistently throughout the bout to finish with 23 points, while guard Adonis Macoto pumped in 18 points.

What really hurt Aqua Resort, however, was the clutch play of Ariel Jinang, who unleashed 13 points in the last 10 minutes.

Dai-Ichi, meanwhile, will have to find an answer to Aqua Resort tower Dalewin Cortez, who tormented their defense for a game-high 34 points.

Aqua Resort barely got the chance to put up a defense of their title after finishing the regular round in a three-way tie with Microl-Toyota and Hyatt Regency Saipan. All three teams posted a record of 5-4, however, ARC controlled the tiebreaker due to the league’s tiebreak system.

For their part, Mobil and CPA both finished with identical 7-2 records, with Mobil taking the second-seed after beating CPA 96-84 last March 1.

Mobil had five players finish in double figures in that battle, however, the team no longer has the services of slotman Ryan Mendoza and will have to beef up their defense this time around as CPA boosted its scoring with the one-two punch of Dave Sablan and Jawn Joyner.

The two teams that falter in the semis will then battle for third place in a consolation game at 3pm on June 18. The two winners will then put everything on the line and fight for all the marbles beginning at 4:30pm the same day. An awards banquet will follow the championship game.

Other teams competing in the league, but were left out of the playoffs, were McDonald’s (4-5), Pacific Development Inc. (3-6), Commonwealth Utilities Corp. (1-8), and the CNMI Women’s National team (0-9).