Island\u2019s Best Choice and GMI Market won their respective debuts in the DL Corp Invitational Basketball League Season 5 in contrasting fashions last Thursday at the San Antonio court.<\/p>\n
In the first game, Island\u2019s Best topped Kauila Enterprises, 85-72, while GMI Market nosed out San Antonio, 89-87, in the second match.<\/p>\n
GMI Market right from the start, but could not pull away against the defending champion San Antonio and needed a lift from Mike Ito and Jethro Cruz\u2019 free throws in the homestretch to foil its foe\u2019s comeback bid. Ito knocked in 8 points in the fourth period, including two triples, while Cruz scored all his 4 points in the final canto from the foul line to hand San Antonio back-to-back losses. San Antonio dropped the season-opening game against JP World\/Mobil, 69-85.<\/p>\n
Cruz and Ito tallied double figures in the close win with the former firing a team-high 23 markers and Ito adding 18. Greg Sablan and Ron Atalig chipped in 10 apiece. Jack Aranda paced San Antonio with his 25 points, while Jaymark De Guzman contributed 21.<\/p>\n
In the curtain-raiser, Island\u2019s Best Choice played solid offense in the first half, but had to withstand Kauila\u2019s third-quarter rally to take the 13-point winning margin.<\/p>\n
Island\u2019s Best registered 25 points apiece in the first and second quarters to build a 50-32 halftime advantage. Matt Duenas and Paolo Sanguyo teamed up in the strong start, combining for 22 markers in the first half.<\/p>\n
The 1-2 punch then slowed down in the third period, allowing Kauila to trim the deficit to single digit, 57-64. Elmer Esdrelon anchored Kauila\u2019s fightback in the third, firing 10 points.<\/p>\n
Threatened, Duenas and Sanguyo brought order back to Island\u2019s Choice in the final canto, teaming up for 17 more points, which came in succession. <\/p>\n
Duenas led all scorers with his 28 markers, while Sanguyo had 19 in his Saipan basketball debut.<\/p>\n
First Game<\/strong><\/p>\n Island\u2019s Best Choice 85<\/strong> \u2014 Duenas 28, Sanguyo 19, De Vero 12, Bongolan 11, Odicta 8, Usi 5, Aniciete 2. Second Game<\/strong><\/p>\n GMI Market 89<\/strong>\u2014 Cruz 23, Ito 18, Sablan 10, Atalig 10, Ong 7, Kintaro 6, Nakashima 6, Alipio 5, Tekopua 4. Island\u2019s Best Choice and GMI Market won their respective debuts in the DL Corp Invitational…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[10042,3699,9997,135],"class_list":["post-222103","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports","tag-best-choice","tag-jaymark-de-guzman","tag-kauila-enterprises","tag-san-antonio"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222103","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=222103"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222103\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=222103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=222103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=222103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nKauila Enterprises 72<\/strong> \u2014 Esdrelon 17, Guiang 13, De Guzman 13, Viray 11, Santos 10, Inos 10, Rueda 2.
\nScoring by quarters:<\/strong> 25-16, 50-32, 64-57, 85-72.<\/p>\n
\nSan Antonio 87<\/strong> \u2014 Aranda 25, De Guzman 21, Barbo 13, Dela Rosa 13, Saturno 7, Rabasto 4, Fidelino 2, Espinosa 2.
\nScoring by quarters:<\/strong> 20-14, 44-37, 66-59, 89-87.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"