{"id":217257,"date":"2015-12-23T06:00:09","date_gmt":"2015-12-22T20:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=217257"},"modified":"2015-12-23T06:00:09","modified_gmt":"2015-12-22T20:00:09","slug":"saipan-ice-finishes-strong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/saipan-ice-finishes-strong\/","title":{"rendered":"Saipan Ice finishes strong"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/a>
Saipan Ice\u2019s Ben Olopai loses the ball as he is challenged in the rebound play by McDonald\u2019s McClain Achas during the fourth quarter of their game in the JP World caging last Monday at the Gillette Multipurpose Gymnasium. (Roselyn B. Monroyo)
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Saipan Ice & Water wrapped up its regular season campaign in the 2nd JP World Corp. Customer Appreciation Basketball League with a come-from-behind 82-68 victory against McDonald\u2019s last Monday night at the Gillette Multipurpose Gymnasium.<\/p>\n

Saipan Ice finished the single-round robin elimination with an even 4-4 record, winning its last three games and moving up to the top half of the team standings in the nine-squad field after staying at the bottom midway in the competition. McDonald\u2019s ended the regular season on a roller-coaster mode, as it dropped to a 3-5 slate.<\/p>\n

McDonald\u2019s had a good chance to win its last game in the elimination when it led by double figures after the first half, 39-27. McDonald\u2019s peppered Saipan Ice with triples in the second quarter to turn a 3-point deficit, 11-14, to a 12-point advantage. Sherwin Gaspar knocked in four treys, while Joe Ayuyu and Michael Achas made one apiece to put McDonald\u2019s one top after the first 20 minutes of play.<\/p>\n

However, McDonald\u2019s lost the driver\u2019s seat in the third period, as Derrick Rangamar and Henry William teamed up in Saipan Ice\u2019s fightback. Rangamar drilled 14 of his game-high 28 points in the third frame, while William chipped in 10 to give the lead back to Saipan Ice, 59-56, entering the final canto.<\/p>\n

It was a close game since then and McDonald\u2019s was still in contention, down by only 5, 66-71, going into the last two minutes of the match. However, McDonald\u2019s was held to one field goal in the homestretch, while Rangamar, Welson, Ben Olopai, and John Santy delivered the killer blows to extend Saipan Ice\u2019s streak to three.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, in the first game, Tan Holdings cruised to a 104-89 win against Top Development, Inc. to finish the elimination with a 7-1 slate.<\/p>\n

Tan Holdings prevailed in its last two matches after absorbing its lone loss in the season at the hands of the unbeaten Micronesian Brokers, Inc.\/Kentucky Fried Chicken, while TDI fell to a 1-6 mark.<\/p>\n

Tan Holdings played without team captain Elmer Esdrelon, but his absence was hardly felt as Paul Quizon and Jared Matsutaro stepped up and combined for nearly half of the team\u2019s total output. Quizon scored 28 points, while Matsutaro contributed 22.<\/p>\n

Henry Manipon had a game-high 32 points for TDI, which will play Mariana Resort today in its last game in the elimination. TDI must win against Mariana Resort and pray that CUC loses to Docomo in the other match tonight to make it to the playoffs. Only the Top 8 teams will advance to the next round and CUC and TDI are tied for eighth to ninth place with their similar 1-6 marks.<\/p>\n

MBI\/KFC and Joeten will complete tonight\u2019s triple-header with the winner getting the top ranking in the playoffs.<\/p>\n

First Game<\/strong>
\nTan Holdings 104 \u2013 Quizon 28, Matsutaro 22, Rivera 15, Macoto 10, Nonato 10, Kim 9, Pablo 8.<\/p>\n

TDI 89 \u2013 Manipon 32, Velasco 32, Pollisco 12, Arreza 8, Lumayag 5.<\/p>\n

Scoring by quarters: 25-15, 55-45, 77-64, 104-89.<\/p>\n

Second Game<\/strong>
\nSaipan Ice 82 \u2013 Rangamar 28, William 18, Welson 11, Santy 9, Kaipat 8, Olopai 6, Villagomez 2.<\/p>\n

McDonald\u2019s 68 \u2013 Gaspar 16, Mc. Achas 16, Mi. Achas 14, Gapor 12, Palacios 3, Ayuyu 3, Manibusna 2, Rigua 2.<\/p>\n

Scoring by quarters: 14-11, 27-39, 59-56, 82-68.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Saipan Ice & Water wrapped up its regular season campaign in the 2nd JP World…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":217266,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[3865,1972,78,6271],"class_list":["post-217257","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-ben-olopai","tag-saipan-ice-water","tag-tan-holdings","tag-tdi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217257","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=217257"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217257\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/217266"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=217257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=217257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=217257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}