{"id":230758,"date":"2016-06-24T06:00:46","date_gmt":"2016-06-23T20:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=230758"},"modified":"2016-06-24T06:00:46","modified_gmt":"2016-06-23T20:00:46","slug":"close-wins-jonah-ezra","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/close-wins-jonah-ezra\/","title":{"rendered":"Close wins for Jonah, Ezra"},"content":{"rendered":"
A Jonah player fakes off the defense of two Nahum players during the second half of their game in the youth division of the Genesis Cup last Saturday at Gilbert C. Ada Gymnasium. (Roselyn B. Monroyo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Johan and Ezra labored for victories in their respective matches in the 5th Genesis Cup Christian Churches Inter-Color Basketball League last Saturday at the Gilbert C. Ada Gymnasium.<\/p>\n

Ezra withstood Joel\u2019s repeated rallies to pull off a 67-62 win in the curtain-raiser, while Johan escaped past Nahum, 84-83, in the second match.<\/p>\n

Sam Darag scored Jonah\u2019s last 6 points to lift his team to victory, while Jethro Cruz also helped out, firing a game-high 42 markers. Cruz and Darag alternately hit baskets in streaks for Johan, which trailed in the majority of the game before finally overtaking Nahum in the closing minutes of the match.<\/p>\n

The debuting Nahum took control of the game behind the baskets of Agape Christian School standouts Haoyu Chen and David Cai, who knocked in 31 and 29 markers, respectively. However, Jonah\u2019s 1-2 punch of Cruz and Darag countered in the second half to steal the win and help the squad bounce back from its opening day loss to Joel, 44-57. <\/p>\n

In the first game, Ezra took the early lead in the five-team field after outclassing Joel (1-1).<\/p>\n

Nathan Borromeo and Santiago again teamed up in giving Ezra the win, as they combined for more than half of the squad\u2019s total production. Borromeo tallied 24, while Santiago added 21. The two players compiled 40 markers in their 71-61 triumph over Haggai during the youth division\u2019s opening week.<\/p>\n

Borromeo was on target from downtown, draining five triples. Actually, Ezra had a good shooting night, as it buried four straight treys in the homestretch with two of them coming from Borromeo.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, in the adults division, Samuel strengthened its hold to the top spot after beating Jeremiah, 75-69.<\/p>\n

The victory was Samuel\u2019s fifth in as many games, giving the team more breathing room against Ezekiel (3-1), Jeremiah (3-2), and Gideon (3-2). Caleb (2-2), Joshua (0-4), Daniel (0-4), and Isaiah (0-4) complete the standings.<\/p>\n

Mark Cando powered Samuel past Jeremiah after registering 24 points. Jerome Reyes and Walter Brillo also hit double figures, posting 17 and 11, respectively.<\/p>\n

Michael Cabanas had 37 for Jeremiah.<\/p>\n

YOUTH DIVISION
\nFirst Game <\/strong>
\nEzra 67 \u2014 Borromeo 24, Santiago 21, De Jose 10, Buno 6, De Leon 4, Sumpay 2.
\nJoel 62 \u2014 Palino 23, Ocaya 16, Elchico 6, De Leon 6, Trinidad 5, Ibanez 4, Lu 2.
\nScoring by halves: 38-32, 67-62.<\/p>\n

Second Game<\/strong>
\nJonah 84 \u2014Cruz 42, Darag 24, Marcellana 7, Azarcon 5, Cabrera 4, Wang 2.
\nNahum 83 \u2014 Chen 31, Cai 29, Cobacha 14, Sacdalan 8, Wang 2.
\nScoring by halves: 45-46, 39-37.<\/p>\n

ADULT DIVISION<\/strong>
\nSamuel 75 \u2014Cando 24, Reyes 17, Brillo 11, Lopez 8, Francia 8, Acosta 4, Gonzales 2.
\nJeremiah 69 \u2014 Cabanas 37, Fatialofa 14, Cortez 11, Lonzaga 4, Buniag 3.
\nScoring by halves: 43-38, 75-69.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Johan and Ezra labored for victories in their respective matches in the 5th Genesis Cup…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":230772,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[145,11398,3667,9951],"class_list":["post-230758","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-ada-gymnasium","tag-david-cai","tag-de-leon","tag-haoyu-chen"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230758","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=230758"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230758\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/230772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=230758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}