Tinian cagers up in arms over on-and-off power

The rolling power outage halted the Department of Corrections-Tinian game in the Inaugural PTI Inter-Government/Business Basketball League Wednesday night at the Gilbert C. Ada Gym, frustrating players, especially those suiting up for Tinian.

“We came all the way from Tinian, spent money from our own pockets for transportation and accommodations, only to go home with an unfinished game. It’s really frustrating,” team leader Anthony Borja said.

Six Tinian players came to Saipan for their game against DOC. The match started around 8pm, but was called off midway in the second period when the power went off. Around 9pm, referee Michael A. White called off the match.

“It’s better to lose a game than have a match cancelled because of the power outage. Just imagine the effort, time and, money we spent for each game. We just love playing basketball that why we come here. But if it’s always like this way, I don’t know if we can still sacrifice,” Borja added.

Four Tinian players paid $45 each for a roundtrip ferry fee and arrived on Saipan, five hours before the game. Two others were forced to take the plane and pay $80 for a roundtrip ticket, as they have to finish their work first before reporting for the game.

Since the ferry service to Tinian operates only until 5pm and the last regular flight bound for Tinian leaves Saipan at 6pm, the visiting players and some of their family members have to stay in a hotel and pay at least $50 for accommodations.

“I hope organizers could find ways to fix the games schedule,” said Borja, who along with his five teammates left early yesterday morning to make it to their work on time.

Joey Dela Cruz of the Division of Sports and Recreation and one of the organizers of the PTI caging said in a telephone interview with the Saipan Tribune that they were not expecting a power outage Wednesday night.

“The usual schedule of power outage in our area (Susupe) is from 12 noon to 2pm everyday. We were not given a notice on the new schedule. We will see if we can arrange something for Tinian or any other team for that matter,” Dela Cruz said.

In the first game, the Bank of Guam Express and Aguaguat were lucky as they were able to finish the match with the former winning. The final score was unavailable as of press time.

The PTI caging has been going on for three months, but has yet to complete its single-round robin regular season due to the rolling power outage.

Schedule of games has been revised several times with the latest one done last Monday, after the Department of Public Safety pulled out of the tournament.

Excluding the cancelled DOC-Tinian game, the league has 13 more matches before concluding the regular season.

The playoffs was set to start on Aug. 26, but could be moved to the first week of September. [B][I](Roselyn B. Monroyo)
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