{"id":410493,"date":"2024-06-05T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-06-05T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=410493"},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"-0001-11-29T14:00:00","slug":"Aguon-Goal-is-to-be-within-Top-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/Aguon-Goal-is-to-be-within-Top-4\/","title":{"rendered":"Aguon: Goal is to be within Top 4"},"content":{"rendered":"

With less than a month left before the widely anticipated 2024 Micronesian Games in Majuro, Marshall Islands, NMI teams are gearing up and getting their final touches in with their training.<\/p>\n

For the NMI Men\u2019s National Basketball Team, their goal is to get in the Top 4 as they recently wrapped up their two-month long tourney and preparation for the Games.<\/p>\n

Head coach Rufino Aguon, who returned from coaching the NMI national basketball team after retiring in 2010, said their biggest challenge is Guam and has always been Guam\u2014along with the long flight to get to Majuro.<\/p>\n

In the last Micro Games in 2018, Guam swept the men\u2019s and women\u2019s basketball competition. Second place in the men\u2019s was Marshall Islands, with Pohnpei in third place. For the women\u2019s, Marshall Islands was second as well, while Palau took third place.<\/p>\n

Aguon said they do not have the set schedule yet, but said their strategy is, if there\u2019s going to be a pool, they need to be first or at least second.<\/p>\n

Even with tough competition, he said they have some additions that may be a boost to the team.<\/p>\n

A fly-in from Oklahoma, Micronesia son, 17-year-old, 6\u20195\u201d Antoni Ogumoro\u2014Aguon\u2019s grandson\u2014is part of the NMI\u2019s 12-man roster. Ogumoro said on the chance to represent NMI in the Micro Games, \u201cThis will be my first time participating and I\u2019m very excited.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m very blessed and grateful that I have this opportunity to play a sport I love while representing my island home at the same time,\u201d said Ogumoro.<\/p>\n

Aguon, with Ogumoro\u2019s build, said, \u201cOf course at 6\u20195,\u201d I welcome anybody with that height. If only we had a couple more\u2026 but he\u2019s a good addition to us. It\u2019s going to make us competitive. As for medaling, it\u2019s all up to us once we get there and see the competition.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another possible addition might be Philippine Basketball Association all-star player and champion Jericho Cruz, who lived on Saipan and was a member of the NMI National Basketball Team. \u201cIt\u2019s a 50\/50 possibility because they\u2019re in the [PBA] finals right now. If they go up to seven games, it\u2019s way past the [Micro Games],\u201d said Aguon.<\/p>\n

He said that even if the final team roster is now set with Ogumoro, Lucio Aldan, Airson Atan, Aiferson Atan, Douglas Schmidt, Preston Basa, Coby Santos, Chioni Dela Cruz, Greg Sablan, Marvin Rabauliman, DJay Ong, and Jack Lizama, he can still make changes before the basketball technical meeting.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf he can make it by the time we play on [June] 17th, then I have to make a decision who\u2019s going to sit. If not, this is the team,\u201d said Aguon.<\/p>\n

Aguon added that after a 14-year hiatus from basketball, he couldn\u2019t say no to James Lee, president of the Northern Mariana Islands Basketball Federation, when he was asked to coach the team this year.<\/p>\n

Aguon coached the NMI Men\u2019s National Basketball Team in the 2010 Micronesian Games in Palau, and also coached the team that competed in the 2006 Micronesian Games on Saipan.<\/p>\n

The only medal won by the NMI Men\u2019s National Basketball Team was silver in the 1994 Micronesian Games in Guam.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Team Marianas poses for a group photo during the awards ceremony of the 2024 Michelob Ultra Cup last Saturday at the Gilbert C. Ada Gymnasium.<\/p>\n

-LEIGH GASES
<\/figcaption><\/figure>

<\/p>\n

Team Marianas\u2019 Antoni Ogumoro in action during the finals of the 2024 Michelob Ultra Cup last Saturday at the Gilbert C. Ada Gymnasium.<\/p>\n

-LEIGH GASES
<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With less than a month left before the widely anticipated 2024 Micronesian Games in Majuro,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-410493","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410493","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=410493"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410493\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=410493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=410493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=410493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}