{"id":245636,"date":"2017-02-02T06:00:42","date_gmt":"2017-02-01T20:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=245636"},"modified":"2017-02-02T06:00:42","modified_gmt":"2017-02-01T20:00:42","slug":"olaces-clinch-outdoor-championship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/olaces-clinch-outdoor-championship\/","title":{"rendered":"Ol\u2019Aces clinch outdoor championship"},"content":{"rendered":"
The Ol\u2019Aces\u2019 Freddie Pelisamen, center, throws up a shot against Saipan Apparel\u2019s Ben Lisua, right, and Jerry Diaz during the fourth quarter of the deciding Game 2 of their title duel in the MIBF outdoor caging last Tuesday at the Gilbert C. Ada Gymnasium. (Roselyn B. Monroyo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Ol\u2019Aces showed poise in the homestretch to beat Saipan Apparel, 82-73, in the deciding Game 2 of their title showdown in the Mariana Islands Basketball Federation\u2019s Inaugural Men\u2019s Outdoor League last Tuesday at the Gilbert C. Ada Gymnasium.<\/p>\n

The Ol\u2019Aces hit clutch baskets and took care of the ball well in the closing minutes of the tightly fought match, while Saipan Apparel committed costly turnovers that sealed the doom for the team, which came into the finals with a twice-to-beat advantage. The Ol\u2019Aces eased past Saipan Apparel in Game 1, 89-68, to force the rubber.<\/p>\n

Freddie Pelisamen and Dan Barcinas delivered the important baskets for the Ol\u2019Aces in Game 2, combining for 9 of the squad\u2019s last 11 points. Pelisamen and Barcinas\u2019 timely buckets offset the solid game veteran Ed Diaz played in the do-or-die match.<\/p>\n

Diaz\u2019s triple gave Saipan Apparel the lead for the last time, 70-69, 2:53 left in the game. The Ol\u2019Aces then quickly reclaimed the upper hand off Jack Lizama\u2019s short jumper, while Saipan Apparel turned the ball over three times in the ensuing plays, and the eventual champions capitalized on these errors to take a 76-70 advantage, 1:33 remaining on the clock.<\/p>\n

Jerome Norita threw two errant passes in that crucial phase, while Derrick Rangamar\u2019s feed inside was intercepted, allowing Freddie Pelisamen a fastbreak layup and later a split free throw after being fouled on his way to another basket in transition. Barcinas scored the 2 other points for the Ol\u2019Aces, banking a fadeaway jumper.<\/p>\n

A Diaz putback off Syl Teregeyo\u2019s miss followed by Rangamar\u2019s split charities kept Saipan Apparel in the match, 73-76, 59 seconds to go in the fourth. Rangamar scored on his second free throw and the Ol\u2019Aces made a quick inbound, catching Saipan Apparel\u2019s defense napping as after just two passes Barcinas was already in their frontcourt and made a layup, plus a foul on Diaz. Barcinas went on to complete the 3-point play to bring the Ol\u2019Aces\u2019 lead back to 6 and two more errors from Saipan Apparel wrapped up Game 2. Pelisamen had another split out of first blunder, while Lizama nailed a layup in the last miscue off the inbound play to peg the final score.<\/p>\n

Pelisamen top-scored for the Ol\u2019Aces with his 17 points\u201412 of them came in the fourth quarter where he played without relief. He also went 6-for-8 from the foul line.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was looking at me, asking for a breather. I looked away because we need him to be there. You know Freddie, he is not afraid to take those big time shots and I am happy that he delivered,\u201d said coach Elias Rangamar.<\/p>\n

The Ol\u2019Aces had to rely on a workhorse player like Pelisamen as Saipan Apparel, behind the leadership of Diaz, stood toe-to-toe with the Ol\u2019Aces in the fourth quarter before collapsing in the end. Saipan Apparel once faced a 10-point deficit in the third period, 45-35, before moving within one at the end of that canto, 50-51. Diaz and Kelvin Fitial teamed up in bringing Saipan Apparel back into the game.<\/p>\n

Saipal Apparel even took a 54-51 lead in the opening minutes of the fourth quarter off Fitial and Ben Lisua\u2019s point-blanked shots before the Ol\u2019Aces regrouped and the seesaw battle began. The Ol\u2019Aces managed to stay in the game with Jesus Iguel\u2019s hustle plays, as the former sprinter scored 6 early points in the fourth before being gassed out and taking a breather midway in the final canto.<\/p>\n

Barcinas, along with Lizama took a break, too, but just for a short time, while Pelisamen remained on the floor, taking every opportunity to hit baskets that spelled the difference in the rubber.<\/p>\n

Saipan Apparel, on the other hand, could not get into scoring position as it turned the ball over even before the leather could reach either Fitial in the paint or Diaz outside. Errors were not recorded in the match, but Saipan Apparel had more than 10 in the fourth quarter alone.<\/p>\n

Ol\u2019Aces 82 \u2014 Pelisamen 17, Barcinas 14, Iguel 14, Lizama 13, Nakashima 6, Basa 5, Palino 4 Libuw 4.<\/p>\n

Saipan Apparel 73 \u2014 Diaz 20, Fitial 15, Andrew 11, Lisua 10, Teregeyo 4, Rangamar 4, Lizama 3.<\/p>\n

Scoring by quarters: 18-19, 36-31, 51-50, 82-73.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Ol\u2019Aces showed poise in the homestretch to beat Saipan Apparel, 82-73, in the deciding…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":245672,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[15220,10841,1521,7974],"class_list":["post-245636","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-ben-lisua","tag-freddie-pelisamen","tag-ol-aces","tag-saipan-apparel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245636","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=245636"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245636\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/245672"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=245636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=245636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=245636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}