{"id":189952,"date":"2015-01-21T04:00:24","date_gmt":"2015-01-20T18:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=189952"},"modified":"2015-01-21T04:00:24","modified_gmt":"2015-01-20T18:00:24","slug":"armatech-nears-sweep-fiesta-survives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/armatech-nears-sweep-fiesta-survives\/","title":{"rendered":"Armatech nears sweep; Fiesta survives"},"content":{"rendered":"

Armatech is one win away from sweeping the elimination round of the 2014 Tan Holdings Basketball Classic after crushing Kanoa Resort, 43-28, during their women\u2019s division game last Saturday night at the Gillette Multipurpose Gymnasium.<\/p>\n

\"Shirley\u2019s<\/a>
Shirley\u2019s Coffee Shop\u2019s Jeraldine Castillo is chased by two Fiesta Resort & Spa Saipan defenders during the second half of their game in the 2014 Tan Holdings Basketball Classic last Saturday at the Gillette Multipurpose Gymnasium. (Roselyn B. Monroyo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Armatech now has a 9-0 record to remain on top of the six-team field. It will go for the sweep this Saturday when it takes cellar dweller Sun Palace, which is still winless with only two games left in the elimination round.<\/p>\n

Lalaine Pagarao and Chevy Kate Alipio teamed up to keep Armatech\u2019s perfect record, scoring 12 point apiece. Four other Armatech players made it to the board to dominate Kanoa, which had only three players scoring. Kelsey Lizama led Kanoa with her 13 markers, while Natasha Ngirausui and Rose Jones chipped in 8 and 7, respectively.<\/p>\n

While Armatech eased past Kanoa, Fiesta Resort & Spa Saipan had a tougher time against Shirley\u2019s Coffee Shop before eking out a 45-43 victory.<\/p>\n

Shirley\u2019s was down by five, 38-43, with 1:50 on the clock, but managed to tie the match when Fiesta muffed several offensive sets, while Jeraldine Castillo drilled 5 straight markers off a triple and a fastbreak layup.<\/p>\n

With the game even and Fiesta in danger of losing anew to Shirley\u2019s, the former sued for time in the last 40.3 seconds of the exciting match. At the resumption of the neck-and-neck tiff, Jahnelle Francisco took care of business for Fiesta, as she attacked from the top key, stopped, and popped a banked shot just past the free throw line.<\/p>\n

Shirley\u2019s tried to get the two points back to even up the count anew, but muffed both shots with Dianne Pablo overshooting her target at the right baseline and Alexa Vergara missing a putback. Fiesta controlled the rebound after Vergara\u2019s miss and ran the clock, which was down to 15.4 seconds. With the clocking ticking and Fiesta still on top, Shirley\u2019s should have committed a preemptive foul, but elected not to, as it hoped to steal possession from the former and have the final shot.<\/p>\n

Pablo did pick Jenny Lee\u2019s pocket and the former tried to sprint to their frontcourt, but ran into Fiesta defenders at the sideline and lost possession. Fortunately, the ball touched a Fiesta player last before it rolled down. However, Fiesta was left with .9 of a second to put up for a decent shot and that was not enough as Pablo was pressured to throw a Hail Mary after the inbound play and the attempt was way too short, preserving Fiesta\u2019s win.<\/p>\n

Francisco top-scored for Fiesta with her 21 points, while Castillo paced Shirley\u2019s with her 25 markers,<\/p>\n

In the third game, IT&E walloped Sun Palace, 49-15.<\/p>\n

IT&E led by 18 at halftime, 21-3, and was never threatened after that. Five IT&E players scored at least two baskets each in the first half to build a comfortable lead, while Shaina Abadilla drilled the lone field goal for Sun Palace and Marlene Lumabi added a split free throw.<\/p>\n

IT&E improved its record to 5-3 for second place behind the unbeaten Armatech and the Top 2 teams will be joined in the semifinals by Fiesta (5-4) and Shirley\u2019s (4-4). Kanoa (2-6) and Sun Palace (0-8) are already eliminated.<\/p>\n

First Game<\/strong>
\nFiesta 45\u2013Francisco 21, Pena 7, Garon 6, Reyes 5, Bergosa 4, Lee 2.
\nShirley\u2019s 43\u2013Castillo 25, Ito 10, Pablo 4, Ermitanio 2, Echavez 2.
\nScoring by halves: 19-24, 45-43.<\/p>\n

Second Game<\/strong>
\nArmatech 43\u2013Pagarao 12, Alipio 12, Castillo 6, Malasarte 4, Pangilinan 2, Palero 2.
\nKanoa 28\u2013Lizama 13, Ngirausui 8, Jones 7.
\nScoring by halves: 16-8, 43-28.<\/p>\n

Third Game<\/strong>
\nIT&E 49\u2013Manibusan 13, Travilla 11, Villagomez 10, Reyes 4, Deleon Guerrerp 4, Flores 3.
\nSun Palace\u00ad 15\u2013Abadilla 9, Tamang 3, Francisco 2, Lumabi 1.
\nScoring by halves: 21-3, 49-15.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Armatech is one win away from sweeping the elimination round of the 2014 Tan Holdings…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":189960,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[143,56,1436,448],"class_list":["post-189952","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-ball","tag-business-3","tag-gillette-multipurpose-gymnasium","tag-kanoa-resort"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189952","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\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=189952"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189952\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/189960"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=189952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=189952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=189952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}