{"id":369993,"date":"2022-06-08T06:06:45","date_gmt":"2022-06-07T20:06:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=369993"},"modified":"2022-06-08T06:06:45","modified_gmt":"2022-06-07T20:06:45","slug":"underdog-nmi-teams-off-to-micro-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/underdog-nmi-teams-off-to-micro-cup\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Underdog\u2019 NMI teams off to Micro Cup"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/a>
The CNMI men\u2019s and women\u2019s national basketball teams pose for a group photo during a send-off event Monday night at the NMSA conference room inside the Gilbert C. Ada Gymnasium. (MARK RABAGO)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The CNMI men\u2019s and women\u2019s national basketball teams flew to Guam yesterday morning to compete in the 2022 FIBA Micronesian Cup set starting today at the UOG Calvo Fieldhouse.<\/p>\n

But before leaving for the neighboring U.S. territory, the players were treated to inspirational messages from officials of the Northern Mariana Islands Basketball Federation Monday night during a send-off event at the NMSA conference room inside the Gilbert C. Ada Gymnasium.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s not really much to say but just go out there and play with your hearts, right. Treat every minute, every quarter as the last quarter of your last game. Because that\u2019s what most of you guys have been training for,\u201d said NMIBF president James Lee.<\/p>\n

He also asked the players to put all distractions aside and just concentrate on representing the CNMI as best they can.<\/p>\n

\u201cLast thing I have to say is I personally like being the underdog whenever I compete because I have nothing to lose. I\u2019m not the one who\u2019s supposed to be pressured. When you guys go down there, just play your game. You know who you are. We\u2014the federation and the coaches\u2014trust each and every one of you. We believe in you guys,\u201d Lee added.\u00a0<\/p>\n

NMIBF vice president Dave Apatang said he witnessed first hand as assistant coach of the women\u2019s team how everyone worked hard this past year\u00a0 to prepare for competition.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI want you guys to take a moment and embrace the feeling of accomplishment. If those nerves do creep up and I\u2019m sure it will as you are sitting alone packing up, just remember what a player once told us: It\u2019s not nerves, it\u2019s excitement\u2026let\u2019s take that determined mindset to the games and represent the CNMI. We are proud of you all, all of you. We will be cheering our lungs out as you attempt to bring home the gold. Go Team NMI!\u201d<\/p>\n

Women\u2019s team captain Madeleine Alegre thanked sponsors, supporters, friends, family, and the NMIBF for supporting them on their journey this past year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWithout all of you we wouldn\u2019t have progressed this far as a team and as individuals. Everyone has had a hand in our growth and we thank you for trusting us in representing our home and we can make all of you very proud!\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Men\u2019s team captain Coby Santos echoed Alegre when he also thanked NMIBF for supporting the men\u2019s and women\u2019s teams.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll try to do our best to represent the NMI and hopefully we can bring home the medals!\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Northern Marianas Sports Association president Jerry Tan also sent a video message to the players and coaches as he\u2019s currently in Tokyo, Japan for business.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m so happy that the NMI basketball team is making an important trip to Guam to play in the FIBA Micro Cup. Despite not being one of the nine sports in the Pacific Mini Games, I\u2019m happy that basketball is still competing at a very high level this June.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also wished both teams good luck in their four-day competition in Guam.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cFor Team NMI, the men\u2019s and the women\u2019s [teams], the coaches, officials, as well as players who\u2019ve put in many, many hours of training, practice, and made all the sacrifices in order to prepare for this tournament, good luck in Guam and fight hard for the NMI!\u201d<\/p>\n

Aside from Santos, making up the CNMI Men\u2019s National Basketball Team are Donovan Brennan, Eli Aughenbaugh, Chioni Dela Cruz, Greg Sablan, Leo Naraja, Shane Deleon Guerrero, Lucio Aldan, Frankie Satur, Jeff Castro, and Sir Lashu Dela Cruz.<\/p>\n

Along with Alegre, the CNMI Women\u2019s National Basketball Team is made up of Marlene Lumabi, Michelle and Richelle Kautz, Kaia Travilla, Azriel Fatialofa, Fiona Bucalig, Angellyn Roligat, Destiny Pangilinan, Gabrielle Race, and E\u2019Anna and Ky\u2019Sonne Won.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The men\u2019s head coach is Joseph \u201cJoe\u201d Diaz and he\u2019s being assisted by Keith Nabors and Sha Aina Mendoza.<\/p>\n

For the women, Catherine Attao-Toves serves as head head coach with the aforementioned Apatang and Vinalyn Simram serving as her coaching lieutenants. Ethan Kwan is the teams\u2019 manager.<\/p>\n

The 2022 FIBA Micronesian Cup kicks off tomorrow at 12:15pm with the men\u2019s game between Palau and the Federated States of Micronesia. It will be followed by the 2:15pm game pitting the FSM women\u2019s team against their counterparts from Palau.<\/p>\n

The CNMI women\u2019s will play next at 4:45pm when they take on the women\u2019s team of Guam followed by the CNMI men\u2019s-Guam men\u2019s tussle at 7pm.<\/p>\n

The next day on Thursday, the CNMI men\u2019s and women\u2019s teams will battle Palau, while teams from the FSM will duke it out against Guam.<\/p>\n

In the tournament\u2019s penultimate day on Friday, the CNMI will take on FSM and Palau will face Guam. The Top 2 teams will then clash in the championship game on Saturday with the No. 3 and No. 4 teams squaring off for the battle for third place.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The CNMI men\u2019s and women\u2019s national basketball teams flew to Guam yesterday morning to compete…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":369996,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[13422],"class_list":["post-369993","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-micro-cup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369993","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\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=369993"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369993\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/369996"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=369993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=369993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=369993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}