Sparks played the game of their lives Thursday when they upset favored Garapan Rollers I, 84-80, in the second game of the 2004 Saipan Rotary Club Summer Youth Basketball League at the Gilbert C. Ada Gymnasium.<\/p>\n
Down 28-20 after the opening half, Benjamin Jones, Jr., Mike Reyes, and the rest of the team played almost perfect ball in the next 20 minutes to hand G-Rollers I (6-3) and its head coach Joe Diaz their most unexpected defeat to date.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have to give it to Sparks coach George Diaz Cruz he really played his cards right tonight. It\u2019s not much about my boys playing bad tonight but rather it\u2019s his players stepping up and playing a heck of a ballgame, especially in the second half,\u201d said Diaz.<\/p>\n
Jones topscored for Sparks (5-5) with 25 points and 10 steals, while Reyes added 20 markers and 12 rebounds.<\/p>\n
Bill Kaipat led the shocked G-Rollers I with 20 points. Vince Teregeyo and Lester Babauta also chipped in 14 and 10 points, respectively, in the loss.<\/p>\n
In the first game, Garapan Rollers II (3-6) kept the CNMI Women\u2019s Junior National Team (0-10) winless with a 79-52 rout.<\/p>\n
G-Rollers II didn\u2019t give the cagebelles any quarters in the opening half and sped away, 44-25, at the turn. It was more or less the same in the second half, as Garapan piled up the points and won the game handily.<\/p>\n
Jose Castro led the way for G-Rollers II with 16 points, while Kevin Aldan and Allan Moses tossed in 13 and 10 points.<\/p>\n
Chariss Ruluked sparkled all game for coach Don Blondin, collecting 20 points on top of 8 rebounds, 6 assists, and 4 swipes. Vanessa Diaz also came away with 15 points, 14 boards, 4 dole outs, and 3 steals.<\/p>\n
The 18-and-under league resumes today with defending champion Ol\u2019Aces taking on 69ers I in the 5:30pm opener. The 7pm nightcap then pits Sixers II against 69ers II.<\/p>\n
First Game<\/p>\n
Garapan Rollers II 79 \u2013 Castro 15, Aldan 13, A. Moses 10, Cruz 7, Sablan 6, J. Moses 4, Iguel 2, Camacho 2, Avila 2.<\/p>\n
CNMI Women Junior Nationals 52 \u2013 Ruluked 20, Diaz 15, Oiterang 9, Rios 6, Elayda 2.<\/p>\n
Scoring by halves: 44-25, 79-52.<\/p>\n
Second Game<\/p>\n
Sparks 84 \u2013 Jones 25, Reyes 20, Iguel 11, Mario 10, Diaz 10, San Nicolas 5, Ogarto 3.<\/p>\n
Garapan Rollers I 80 \u2013 Kaipat 20, Teregeyo 14, Babauta 10, Chariton 8, L. Iguel 8, Tumaquip 6, Omar 4, Naraja 4, P. Iguel 2.<\/p>\n
Scoring by halves: 20-28, 84-80.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sparks played the game of their lives Thursday when they upset favored Garapan Rollers I, 84-80, in the second game of the 2004 Saipan Rotary Club Summer Youth Basketball League at the Gilbert C. Ada Gymnasium.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-84520","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84520","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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84520"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84520\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84520"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}