Dolphins win early rematch with Rays

A stronger Marianas High School won its early rematch with Saipan Southern High School, 63-55, in the opening game in the boys division of the 2008-2009 MISO Basketball League Friday night at the MHS Gymnasium.

The Dolphins dueled the Rays in last season’s finals and were dethroned with Southern’s much experienced crew and deeper bench eking out a 111-99 win in the finals.

This season, MHS and Southern seemed headed for a change of fortunes, as far as their rosters are concerned.

The Dolphins have the returning trio of Jericho Cruz, Marvin Rabauliman, and Joseph Ada boosting their roster. The three players were the top scorers for MHS last season, but after the trio, the Dolphins had only two to three guys capable of contributing to the team’s cause last year

This season, coaches Nick Gross and Mark McDonald have a lot of players on the bench to turn to if things did not work out well with his Top 3 gunners.

MHS will have the returning Zack Tudela, who missed last season’s MISO caging, Champ Untalan, Clayton Kenty, Noel Soria, Aemir Villegas, and Will Tomokane joining holdovers Heartim Williams and Ron Catap.

Southern are now without its starting five—Ernest Duenas, Manuel Ajoste, Lerio Pagarao, Mike Eclevia and Bill Babauta—who all graduated last season.

From last year’s champion team, only five are left. The list includes Lawrence Echon, Brian Ajoste, Nathan Flores, Styner Beltau, and Oscar Masga. These are the guys who usually came of the bench last season, but are promoted to the starting five this year. The remaining seven players on coach Jesse Tudela’s lineup are new recruits.

Despite having basically a new roster, the Rays took control of the first quarter of their game against the Dolphins, 16-4 and kept the driver’s seat at halftime, 26-21.

MHS fell behind in the first half with Cruz and Rabauliman sitting on the bench.

Gross said team rules put the two members of the CNMI Junior National Teams on the bench in the first half. He did not elaborate which team rules the two starters violated.

Cruz made his presence felt at the start of the second half scoring eight of MHS’ 20 points to give the Dolphins the lead, 41-38.

Cruz continued to make up for lost time, while Rabauliman did the same adding six more markers in the fourth quarter.

The backcourt tandem of Tudela and Ada also did wonders for the Dolphins in the second half, as the two walked away with easy layups en route to giving MHS an eight-point win.

Ada led all scorers with 18 points, while Cruz still finished in double figures with 12. Tudela and Rabauliman chipped in eight, and MHS had little problems on offense, as six other players made it into the scoreboard.

Southern had only six players scoring in its debut game with Ajoste leading the way with 13 points. Flores contributed 11, while Josh Kiyoshi added 10. Beltau had nine markers and rookie Vince Iglecias and Masga drilled six apiece.