{"id":381857,"date":"2022-12-19T06:02:09","date_gmt":"2022-12-18T20:02:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=381857"},"modified":"2022-12-19T06:02:09","modified_gmt":"2022-12-18T20:02:09","slug":"shanes-buzzer-beater-delivers-title-to-ak-toyota","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/shanes-buzzer-beater-delivers-title-to-ak-toyota\/","title":{"rendered":"Shane\u2019s buzzer-beater delivers title to AK-Toyota"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/a>
Atkins Kroll sales manager Kevin Barnes holds the championship trophy surrounded by AK-Toyota players and Mariana Islands Basketball League officials after the finals of the Inaugural IT&E MIBL Fantasy Draft Tournament last Friday at the Agape Gymnasium. (MARK RABAGO)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Shane Deleon Guerrero\u2019s basket with no time remaining averted a monumental collapse by AK-Toyota as they beat IT&E, 73-72, in an epic winner-take all championship in the Inaugural IT&E MIBL Fantasy Draft Tournament last Friday at the Agape Gymnasium.<\/p>\n

The CNMI national player\u2019s bank shot from about 6 feet away was an answered prayer for AK-Toyota coach Dennis Cortez as moments before Rodel Pastrana gave IT&E an improbable 72-71 lead on two free throws with 4.8 seconds left in the ballgame.<\/p>\n

Pastrana\u2019s two charities capped a 15-3 rally by IT&E just when everyone thought AK-Toyota was zooming toward the championship.\u00a0<\/p>\n

AK-Toyota\u2019s 10-point advantage came on the heels of IT&E\u2019s own run that gave them a 58-57 lead on a 3-pointer by ageless Ed Diaz with time down to 5:42.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The game appeared to be out of IT&E\u2019s reach, however, moments later when AK-Toyota went on the aforementioned scoring tear capped by a Raymond Velasco free throw that made it 68-58 with 2:34 remaining.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Back-to-back triples by Kelvin Fitial and Diaz and a fastbreak layup by Airson Atan off a steal by the highflyer made it 68-66.<\/p>\n

A free throw off a loose ball foul on AK-Toyota\u2019s Frank Ferrer stopped the bleeding somewhat and made it 69-66 with 1:09 left.\u00a0<\/p>\n

AK-Toyota would turn the ball over in the next play and Pastrana made it a 1-point contest with an under-goal stab with 43 seconds left.<\/p>\n

An AK-Toyota player would step out of bounds with 39 seconds left and IT&E capitalized on the miscue when Pastrana was fouled and went 2-for-2 to give IT&E a 70-69 lead.<\/p>\n

Velasco then came to the rescue of AK-Toyota when he rebounded a miss and hit a sweet bank shot to give them back the lead, 71-70, with 10 seconds remaining.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Both teams would then exchange turnovers before Pastrana was fouled again and made both free throws to shove IT&E back in the lead.\u00a0<\/p>\n

What ensued was Deleon Guerrero\u2019s buzzer-beater that had everyone in the AK-Toyota bench rise up and mob the athletic wingman.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn my head, I just needed to get the ball and score for my team. It was all my mentality\u2026I\u2019m just happy\u2026 happy as we came a long way\u2026we\u2019re the only undefeated team\u2026\u201d said Deleon Guerrero moments after his memorable shot, which was the 26-year-old\u2019s first game-winner in a championship match.<\/p>\n

For his part, Cortez said while his team almost lost composure in the end, they were fortunate to get the last possession and luckily Deleon Guerrero made the winning shot.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just told them to play hard and play as a team when they were rattled when IT&E made back-to-back 3-pointers in a span of 4 seconds\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

On the last play after Pastrana\u2019s two free throws gave IT&E the lead, Cortez instructed his players to give Deleon Guerrero a pick and make him go all the way.<\/p>\n

He then thanked all his players, sponsor AK-Toyota, Agape Christian School, and Mariana Islands Basketball League for organizing the tourney.\u00a0<\/p>\n

AK-Toyota was in control for the majority of the game, leading 22-14 after the first quarter and 36-28 at the half. They still had a comfortable 51-44 spread heading into the payoff period before all hell broke loose in the fourth.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Deleon Guerrero top-scored for the champions with 20 points, while Ferrer, Juan Camacho, and Velasco also finished in double figures.<\/p>\n

Pastrana fired a game-high 22 points in the heart-breaking loss, while Atan, Fitial, and Diaz pumped in 12 points or more for IT&E.<\/p>\n

AK-Toyota 73<\/strong> \u2013 Deleon Guerrero 20, Ferrer 18, Camacho 10, Velasco 10, Guntar 8, Lilies 7.
\nIT&E 72<\/strong> \u2013 Pastrana 22, Atan 14, Fitial 12, Diaz 12, Capalad 6, Basa 6.
\nScoring by quarters:<\/strong> 22-14, 36-28, 51-44, 73-72.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Shane Deleon Guerrero\u2019s basket with no time remaining averted a monumental collapse by AK-Toyota as…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":381840,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-381857","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381857","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=381857"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381857\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/381840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=381857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=381857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=381857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}