{"id":187876,"date":"2014-12-22T04:00:11","date_gmt":"2014-12-21T18:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=187876"},"modified":"2014-12-22T04:00:11","modified_gmt":"2014-12-21T18:00:11","slug":"nmsa-rallies-clinch-title","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/nmsa-rallies-clinch-title\/","title":{"rendered":"NMSA rallies to clinch title"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Northern<\/a>
Northern Marianas Sports Association members celebrate their title win after beating the Feds in overtime, 79-75, in the 2014 IT&-DYS Inter-government Basketball League last Friday night at the Gilbert C. Ada Gymnasium. (Jon Perez)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Northern Marianas Sports Association rallied back from a 9-point deficit in the fourth quarter and outlasted the Feds in overtime, 79-75, in their title match in the 2014 IT&E-DYS Inter-government Basketball League last Friday night at the Gilbert C. Ada Gymnasium.<\/p>\n

NMSA enjoyed a twice-to-beat advantage in the title showdown after sweeping the playoff round, including a 68-67 squeaker over the Feds on Dec. 15, to clinch the first finals berth and finished off the Feds early to win this year\u2019s championship.<\/p>\n

The Feds, on the other hand, needed an 84-49 crushing of Department of Community and Cultural Affairs to seal a title match with NMSA. The Frank Flores-mentored squad was then press to beat NMSA on Friday night to force a you-or-me showdown tonight and nearly got the job done before squandering a 9-point lead in the final 2:11 of the contest.<\/p>\n

The Feds seemed headed to a knockout match when it enjoyed a 68-59 spread heading into the final two minutes of the tightly-fought match.<\/p>\n

However, NMASA fought back behind Peter Camacho, who scored 4 of the team\u2019s 9 points, including a pair of free throws off Ronnel Gamboa\u2019s foul with 4.8 seconds left on the clock. The charities knotted the count at 68-all and sent the match in overtime as the Feds failed to score at the other end.<\/p>\n

The Feds had the chance to close the match in regulation, but Camacho stole the ball away from Hae Joon Park. The NMSA enforcer could have nailed the game-winning basket but time expired as he ran toward their court.<\/p>\n

In overtime, Ezra Caro went to work for NMSA, scoring the team\u2019s last 6 points, including a reverse layup in the final 21 seconds of the game, 79-75. That turned out to be the final tally as the Feds failed to counter on the other end against NMSA\u2019s tight defense.<\/p>\n

Mike Babauta, off a Leo Apelo missed jumper, grabbed the loose ball and just ran the clock down. Jubilation erupted at the NMSA bench when the buzzer sounded.<\/p>\n

Preston Basa top-scored for NMSA with his 22 points and buried five 3-pointers, while Camacho scattered 14 markers and had 5 rebounds. Rangamar chipped in 11 points to go with his 3 feeds, 6 boards, and 1 steal.<\/p>\n

Caro, who helped contain Feds big man Ken McCain, tallied 10 points, 2 assists, 3 rebounds, and 2 steals. Jacoby Winkfield and Mike Babauta combined for 10 markers, 13 rebounds, and 4 steals.<\/p>\n

Apelo paced the Feds\u2019 losing cause with an all-around performance of 24 points, 3 rebounds, 3 assists, and a game-high 7 steals, while Gamboa backed him up with 22 markers, 3 caroms, 3 feeds, and 1 steal.<\/p>\n

McCain, who put the Feds within two with his basket, 77-75, 1:54 left in the final quarter, made 13 points, grabbed 12 rebounds, had 2 assists, and blocked 4 shots. Juan Camacho contributed 12 markers, 11 rebounds, 2 assists and 2 steals.<\/p>\n

Besides the fourth-quarter meltdown, the Feds also squandered an 11-point halftime lead as it could not shake off NMSA, which always found an answer to every run the former made.<\/p>\n

NMSA 79\u2013Basa 22, Camacho 14, Rangamar 11, Caro 10, Jones 6, Winkfield 6, Babauta 4, Sablan 4, Fitial 2.<\/p>\n

Feds75\u2013Apelo 24, Gamboa 22, McCain 13, Camacho 12, Park 4.<\/p>\n

Scoring by quarters: 18-17, 31-42, 54-53, 68-68, 79-75 (OT). (Jon Perez)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Northern Marianas Sports Association rallied back from a 9-point deficit in the fourth quarter and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":187884,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[145,143,1255,1162],"class_list":["post-187876","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-ada-gymnasium","tag-ball","tag-ben-jones","tag-nmsa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187876","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=187876"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187876\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/187884"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=187876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=187876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=187876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}