{"id":389588,"date":"2023-04-17T06:01:05","date_gmt":"2023-04-16T20:01:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=389588"},"modified":"2023-04-17T06:01:05","modified_gmt":"2023-04-16T20:01:05","slug":"pepoys-outlasts-olaces-in-masters-caging","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/pepoys-outlasts-olaces-in-masters-caging\/","title":{"rendered":"Pepoy\u2019s outlasts Ol\u2019Aces in masters caging"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/a>
Pepoy\u2019s Cafe & Restaurant players are all smiles after nipping Ol\u2019Aces, 80-79, in the masters division of the 2nd Annual Saipan Centennial Lions Basketball League last Friday at the Civic Center Basketball Court in Susupe. (CONTRIBUTED PHOTO)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Pepoy\u2019s Cafe & Restaurant averted a complete collapse to beat a determined Ol\u2019Aces crew, 80-79, in the masters division of the 2nd Annual Saipan Centennial Lions Basketball League last Friday at the Civic Center Basketball Court in Susupe.<\/p>\n

Leading by 12 points at the start of the fourth and final quarter, Pepoy\u2019s Cafe & Restaurant was blitzed by Ol\u2019Aces\u2019 full-court press and nearly succumbed to their fastbreak attack.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Led by ageless point guard Elias Rangamar, the team from Oleai slowly gnawed at their deficit before grabbing the lead on a short stab by Benny Joab, 77-75, with less than 2 minutes left in the game.<\/p>\n

Rangamar then found Derrick Tudela for another easy bucket to give Ol\u2019Aces more breathing room, 79-75, with less than a minute to go.<\/p>\n

Pepoy\u2019s Cafe & Restaurant wasn\u2019t finished by a long shot though as Bryan Natividad got free for a 3-pointer on a screen and an assist by Clint Albert to make it 78-79 moments later.<\/p>\n

After several fruitless attempts by Ol\u2019Aces, Pepoy\u2019s Cafe & Restaurant got the rebound and Natividad drove to the basket before dishing it off to a wide open Mike Mamaril who calmly banked the shot in for an improbable 80-79 lead.<\/p>\n

Ol\u2019Aces had several chances to take back the lead with 17 seconds left in the game, but Pepoy\u2019s Cafe & Restaurant players kept tapping the ball out with the last loose ball going out of bounds as time expired.<\/p>\n

Pepoy\u2019s Cafe & Restaurant took the initiative early, buoyed by the hot shooting of James Villacrusis they took a 26-18 lead after the first quarter.<\/p>\n

Freddie Pelisamen then asserted himself in the second canto, scoring a bunch of fastbreak baskets and pull-up shots to momentarily sway momentum to Ol\u2019Aces.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A last-minute push by Pepoy\u2019s Cafe & Restaurant, however, gave them a 43-39 lead at the halftime break.<\/p>\n

Natividad found his rhythm in the third, knocking a number of triples as Pepoy\u2019s Cafe & Restaurant controlled the pace and entered the payoff period up by a dozen.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But that lead proved not safe in the face of Ol\u2019Aces\u2019 comeback that was ultimately foiled by Pepoy\u2019s Cafe & Restaurant own uprising in easily the best game of the young season in the masters division.<\/p>\n

Natividad led Pepoy\u2019s Cafe & Restaurant with 19 points, while Villacrusis and Mamaril chipped in 18 markers and 13 markers, respectively, for the now 2-1 team.<\/p>\n

Pelisamen led all scorers with 33 points with Rangamar adding 13 points for Ol\u2019Aces, which dropped to 2-2.<\/p>\n

In the second game, JTM Saipan got 18 points from guard Ryan Bayna and 14 points from center Jonel Broncono to defeat Puerto Rico Bento, 79-75.<\/p>\n

After a slow start that saw Puerto Rico Bento lead, 14-11, after the first 10 minutes of play, JTM Saipan took the reins, leading 38-32 and 56-53 in the middle quarters to win its fifth game in six outings.<\/p>\n

Puerto Rico Bento, which absorbed its second loss in four games, was paced by the 21 points of Coby Santos and 15 points of Darryl Foronda.<\/p>\n

Last Thursday, Martech-Ol\u2019Aces kept its unbeaten streak at 4-0 after routing now 0-5 Checkpoint International, 71-45, in the open division.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the masters division, Blue Haus improved to 3-0 following its 78-70 win over Blue Eagle\/Royal Pacific, 78-70. The latter dropped to 1-2 in the standings.<\/p>\n

First Game<\/strong>
\nPepoy\u2019s 80<\/strong> \u2013 Natividad 19, Villacrusis 18, Mamaril 13, Camacho 12, Martin 9, Rabago 4, Galulu 2, Mina 2, Ebuen 1.
\nOl\u2019Aces 79<\/strong> \u2013 F. Pelisamen 33, Rangamar 13, George 8, Iginoef 6, B. Pelisamen 5, D. Joab 5, Tudela 5, B. Joab 2, Rengul 2.
\nScoring by quarters:<\/strong> 26-18, 43-39, 67-55, 80-79.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Second Game<\/strong>
\nJTM Saipan 79<\/strong> \u2013 Bayna 18, Broncano 15, Velasco 10, Rodriguez 7, Ferrer 7, Monteverde 6, Bernardo 6, Ruiz 5, Romo 4, Cruz 2.
\nPuerto Rico Bento 75 <\/strong>\u2013 Santos 21, Forondo 15, Mintac 11, Galang 10, Hipolito 5, Estimado 4, Reyes 3, Leon 3, Antonio 3.
\nScoring by quarters: <\/strong>11-14, 38-32, 56-53, 79-75.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pepoy\u2019s Cafe & Restaurant averted a complete collapse to beat a determined Ol\u2019Aces crew, 80-79,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":389573,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[4963,1521,4964],"class_list":["post-389588","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-first-game","tag-ol-aces","tag-second-game"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389588","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=389588"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389588\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/389573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=389588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=389588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=389588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}