{"id":382942,"date":"2023-01-06T06:06:18","date_gmt":"2023-01-05T20:06:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=382942"},"modified":"2023-01-06T06:06:18","modified_gmt":"2023-01-05T20:06:18","slug":"koblerville-ends-gualo-rais-perfect-run","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/koblerville-ends-gualo-rais-perfect-run\/","title":{"rendered":"Koblerville ends Gualo Rai\u2019s perfect run"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/a>
Devin Igisomar skies for a layup against Gualo Rain in the second half of their boys 18 division match in the 2022 Marianas Village Pride Basketball League last Wednesday night at the Gillette Multi-Purpose Center. (MARK RABAGO)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Koblerville ended Gualo Rai\u2019s quest for perfection and in the process took the No. 1 seed in the boys 18 division of the 2022 Marianas Village Pride Basketball League last Wednesday night at the Gillette Multi-Purpose Center.<\/p>\n

Led by Ja Morant clone Airson Atan\u2019s 35 points, Koblerville extricated itself from a close first half by using a running attack in the homestretch to beat the erstwhile unscathed Gualo Rai squad, 61-53.<\/p>\n

Both teams were evenly matched in the first half as you would expect from the Top 2 teams in the division with Koblerville eking out a candlestick 25-24 lead at intermission.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Koblerville, however, started the second half with aplomb as it immediately dropped a 28-15 run against Gualo Rai to open up a 14-point spread.<\/p>\n

But Gualo Rai wouldn\u2019t go down without a fight as back-to-back triples by Leo Naraja and Lucio Aldan and a free throw by the former cut down Koblerville\u2019s once-imposing lead to 53-46 time down to 5:28 in the match.<\/p>\n

Craig Padayao\u2019s layup with 4:05 left made it even closer with 53-48 remaining, before Atan\u2019s two free throws gave them some breathing room.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Naraja\u2019s two free throws made it a 5-point game again, but Tynk Basa\u2019s put-back restored a 57-50 advantage for Koblerville as the two-minute warning was announced.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Gualo Rai would then misfire on a bunch of hurried 3-pointers in the homestretch to kiss their aspirations of an undefeated elimination round and\u00a0 a No. 1 seed in the playoffs goodbye.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Atan led all scorers with 35 points, while Devin Igisomar and Basa added 11 and 10 markers, respectively.<\/p>\n

Naraja paced Gualo Rai in the loss with 19 markers followed closely by the 18 of backcourt mate Aldan. Padayao added 12 points.<\/p>\n

Despite finishing with identical 6-1 win-loss records, Koblerville took the top seed in the age group heading to the playoffs via the winner-over-the-other rule.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It will face 4-3 Dandan in the first round of the playoffs on Sunday, Jan. 8. Gualo Rai, meanwhile, will battle 5-2 Tanapag tomorrow, Jan. 7.<\/p>\n

In other divisions, it will be Kagman (7-1) vs Oleai (3-5) and Tanapag (6-2) vs Finasisu (4-4) in the first round of the playoffs in the boys 13.<\/p>\n

In the women\u2019s division, top seed Dandan (8-1) will square off against fourth seed Kagman (5-5), while second seed Garapan (6-4) will duel third seed San Vicente (5-5) in their own Final Four.<\/p>\n

Before the epic Koblerville-Gualo Rai showdown, Dandan edged Navy Hill, 53-51, in the boys 18 thanks to key free throws by Aiden Suba and Kenny Laquian.<\/p>\n

In the same age group earlier, San Antonio mangled San Vicente, 67-19.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, Dandan beat San Antonio, 65-51, and Tanapag defeated Chalan Kiya, 75-60,\u00a0 in the boys 18; and San Vicente dropped Kagman, 46-33, and Garapan got by San Jose, 55-44, in the women\u2019s division.<\/p>\n

Last Monday, Mikayla Lopez fired the last 6 points for Garapan to lead them to a 47-46 win over San Vicente in women\u2019s play.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Also in the same division, Dandan outplayed San Vicente in crunchtime, 33-29.<\/p>\n

Koblerville, meanwhile, warmed up for its battle against Gualo Rai with a 107-13 drubbing of San Vicente in the boys 18.<\/p>\n

Koblerville 61<\/strong> \u2013 Atan 35, Igisomar 11, Basa 10, Omar 5.
\nGualo Rai 53<\/strong> \u2013 Naraja 19, Aldan 18, Padayao 12, Garcia 4.
\nScoring by halves:<\/strong> 25-24, 61-53.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Koblerville ended Gualo Rai\u2019s quest for perfection and in the process took the No. 1…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":382935,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[197,133],"class_list":["post-382942","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-gualo-rai","tag-run"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382942","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=382942"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382942\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/382935"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=382942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=382942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=382942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}