{"id":242428,"date":"2016-12-13T06:00:48","date_gmt":"2016-12-12T20:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=242428"},"modified":"2016-12-13T06:00:48","modified_gmt":"2016-12-12T20:00:48","slug":"diaz-gets-finals-mvp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/diaz-gets-finals-mvp\/","title":{"rendered":"Diaz gets Finals MVP"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_242431\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-242431\" style=\"width: 164px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/UFO-pix-9-164x300.jpg\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-242431\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ali\u2019i Blue Haus\/Bayani\u2019s Ed Diaz uses the board for a shot against 8th Division\/MAFEA\u2019s Amor Zapata during in their championship game last week at the Gilbert C. Ada Gymnasium. (Roselyn B. Monroyo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Former CNMI National Team player Ed Diaz earned the Finals MVP award in the 2016 UFO\/IT&amp;E Inter-Organizational Basketball League after helping Ali\u2019i Blue Haus\/Bayani beat 8th Division\/MAFEA, 78-62, in their championship game last week at the Gilbert C. Ada Gymnasium.<\/p>\n<p>Diaz had a double-double in the finals as he scored 18 points and hauled 13 rebounds. The Marianas Visitors Authority employee also recorded two assists, two steals, and a block for an all-around game. He made 8 of his points in the final quarter, including 6 straight markers that ended 8th Division\u2019s hopes for a comeback win.<\/p>\n<p>Diaz and other individual and team awardees in the league were recognized during UFO\u2019s Christmas Party last Sunday at the Philcom Pavilion in Susupe. <\/p>\n<p>Elmer Esdrelon, also of Ali\u2019i Blue Haus\/Bayani, was named to the Mythical Team along with 8th Division\u2019s Alex Lauron and Kelvin Fitial, Best Sunshine International-Blue Eagle\u2019s Douglas Schmidt, and PC Bargain\/Visminda\u2019s James Villacrusis.<\/p>\n<p>Villacrusis got two awards, as he was named the scoring champion of the league after collecting 219 points in the single round-robin elimination and averaging 27.37 per match. The PC Bargain gunner defeated Cavite\u2019s Preston Basa (23.50 ppg) and Save More\u2019s Sid Quan (19.62 ppt).<\/p>\n<p>Schmidt failed to finish in the Top 3 in scoring after missing one game in the regular season, but the BSI-Blue Eagle key player had the most awards in the league as he topped the steals department and was handed the Most Behaved and Disciplined Player trophy. Schmidt had 39 steals in the regular season to average 4.87 per match. He was way ahead of 8th Division\u2019s Amor Zapata (26) and Esdrelon (16).<\/p>\n<p>Esdrelon led the league in assists with his 35 to win his second award, while Quan and Schmidt, who had 24 each, and Armatech\u2019s Bernard Montano (21) joined him in the Top 3.<\/p>\n<p>Basa failed to get the scoring champion title, but he reigned supreme in the 3-point shooting after converting 46 shots from the parking lot. Stephen\u2019s Pawnshop\u2019s James Abuy was ranked second with his 29 triples, while Villacrusis came in at third with his 23.<\/p>\n<p>In the rebounds department, Quan lorded it over in the nine-team field after recording 97. He was the runaway winner, as Fitial and BSI-Blue Eagle\u2019s Tony Raho, had only 68 and 67, respectively. In the blocks division, Armatech\u2019s Jerome Malasarte defeated BSI-Blue Eagle\u2019s Brady Hammond, 8-7. Fitial led four other players with six blocks apiece.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Former CNMI National Team player Ed Diaz earned the Finals MVP award in the 2016&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":242431,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[145,14697,9496,776],"class_list":["post-242428","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-ada-gymnasium","tag-amor-zapata","tag-brady-hammond","tag-ed-diaz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242428","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=242428"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242428\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/242431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=242428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=242428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=242428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}