{"id":392863,"date":"2023-06-01T06:06:48","date_gmt":"2023-05-31T20:06:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=392863"},"modified":"2023-06-01T06:06:48","modified_gmt":"2023-05-31T20:06:48","slug":"martech-olaces-claims-1st-mich-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/martech-olaces-claims-1st-mich-cup\/","title":{"rendered":"Martech-Ol\u2019Aces claims 1st \u2018Mich\u2019 Cup\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/p>\n

Martech-Ol\u2019Aces defeated Team Marianas in the winner-take-all championship game of the 2023 Michelob Ultra Cup Men\u2019s Islandwide Basketball League on Tuesday night at the Gilbert C. Ada Gymnasium.<\/p>\n

From 12 teams to the final two, Martech Ol\u2019Aces and Team Marianas were the top-tier teams of the league with the mighty Martech-Ol\u2019Aces showing Team Marianas who\u2019s the top dog with a 92-56 blowout victory.<\/p>\n

The game did not start off without a hitch as a few minutes into the first quarter, an accident occurred as Team Marianas\u2019 Coby Santos and Martech-Ol\u2019Aces\u2019 Douglas \u201cSpider\u201d Schmidt collided when they both went after the ball and Schmidt\u2019s forehead split open.<\/p>\n

The show must go on as Schmidt stayed in the game after they patched his head and went on to score the most points for his team with 22.<\/p>\n

The game was a nailbiter in the first quarter as Santos bursted into the scene with 11 markers and trailed Ol\u2019Aces by just 2 points, 23-21.<\/p>\n

Team Marianas\u2019 offense fell apart simultaneously as Ol\u2019Aces\u2019 defense tightened, with Ol\u2019Aces limiting Team Marianas to just 9 points. Ol\u2019Aces\u2019 Riley Brungard went deep twice, with Aiferson Atan chipping in one as well as they pulled away from Team Marianas for a 53-30 lead after the second quarter.<\/p>\n

Airson Atan and Schmidt padded the Ol\u2019Aces lead in the last quarters with 20 points for Airson by the end of the game.<\/p>\n

Santos, with 24 points, was shut down in the last quarter as Ol\u2019Aces\u2019 tightened their defense around him. Teammate Ervin Villarin took the reins and scored a total of 13 points.<\/p>\n

Ol\u2019Aces\u2019 defense was impenetrable throughout the game and coupled with their impressive offense, they blew out Team Marianas for the House at MarPac perpetual trophy, $500 in cash, five cases of Michelob Ultra, and 17 Michelob Ultra diddy bags.
\n

<\/a>
Team Marianas\u2019 Eli Garcia, center, is the recipient of the Uncle Paul Shimizu MVP Award of the 2023 Michelob Ultra Cup Men\u2019s Islandwide Basketball League season.(LEIGH GASES)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n

Player\/coach for the champions, Preston Basa, said that really their strategy in the finals was their defense. Their defense was like security at Fort Knox and it was evident throughout the season as they went undefeated in the regular season and in the playoffs.<\/p>\n

Basa added that the league was \u201cgood. It was good to be back on the floor. Obviously basketball has been out of Saipan for quite a while, so we\u2019re happy to have all the boys back and it\u2019s always good to win.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Schmidt\u2019s injury and staying in the game to continue playing, \u201cnobody can tell him not to play. Injured or not, he\u2019ll be on the floor.\u201d<\/p>\n

Basa said that their sponsor, Martech will sponsor them again the next Michelob Ultra Cup season and they look forward to defending their title. \u201cIt was a great tournament all around. Big shout out to MarPac for bringing basketball back to the CNMI. My huge thank you to all the volunteers to help put this together. Without the volunteers, sports in the CNMI will be difficult so we thank all of them for their time.\u201d<\/p>\n

James Lee, who wore many hats for the league\u2014coach for Team Marianas, sales manager at MarPac, and president of the Northern Mariana Islands Basketball Federation\u2014said that the league turned out great.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is our Michelob Ultra men\u2019s league in a while and it was a great turnout. I definitely know we can do a lot better, so we look forward to next year,\u201d he said. As for the teams that participated, \u201cit really started out with a lot of excitement\u2026 And I think now they know what to expect playing indoors, with air con, and having fans\u2026 What I was hoping for is kind of leveling up on every aspect\u2014not only as athletes, where they need to be coaching wise, what they need to do, and also the expectations of what the fans need. So I think overall we\u2019ve accomplished that so far.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Uncle Paul Shimizu MVP Award went to Team Marianas\u2019 Eli Garcia who received an MVP trophy, $200 cash, a case of Michelob Ultra, a Michelob Ultra cooler, a Michelob Ultra Yeti flask, and other Michelob Ultra gear\u2014which went to an adult because he is under 21 years old.<\/p>\n

Martech Ol\u2019Aces 91<\/strong> \u2013 Schmidt 22, Airson Atan 20, Lizama 13, Brungard 11, Aiferson Atan 7, Kabiriel 4, Pelisamen 4, Barcinas 4, Libuw 2, Basa 2.
\nTeam Marianas 56 <\/strong>\u2013 C. Santos 24, Villarin 13, K. Santos 6, G. Sablan 5, Richardson 5, Raquepo 3.
\nScoring by quarters:<\/strong> 23-21, 53-30; 70-43, 91-56.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Martech-Ol\u2019Aces defeated Team Marianas in the winner-take-all championship game of the 2023 Michelob Ultra Cup…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":392882,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[16309],"class_list":["post-392863","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-team-marianas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392863","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\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=392863"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392863\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/392882"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=392863"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=392863"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=392863"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}