GSPN Pre-Season Basketball Day1
The highly anticipated GSPN Pre-Season Boys Basketball Tournament officially tipped off Thursday evening with an opening ceremony to introduce all 11 participating teams.
Local singer Jack Larimer led the National Anthem followed by the Guam Hymn, Leo Payumo introduced the youth to the Mt. Rushmore of Guam Basketball, and legendary coach Felipe Candaso did the honorary tipoff to get the games underway.
JFK 58, Sanchez 37
The Islanders proved early in the game why they are one of the season’s most dangerous teams after quickly jumping out to a 21-9 lead against the Sharks.
Sanchez made it a closer contest in the second half, but All-Island 1st Team returnee Billy Belger proved to be too much to handle by making clutch buckets to put the Sharks away.
Belger had a game-high 19 points and helped the Islanders bounce back from a poor 3rd quarter where they allowed Sanchez back in the game. Sharks John Buan scored a team-high 13 points, majority of which coming in the second half where the Sharks outscored the Islanders 13-9 in the 3rd quarter to pull within 39-28.
Belger broke a four-minute scoring drought with a bucket midway through the final quarter to go up 41-28. He then made a heads-up play on defense by intercepting a pass after the inbound, where he then stepped into a three-pointer off the steal to extend the lead 44-28, putting the game out of reach.
Ricky Pak added eight points for JFK in the win as the Islanders jump out to an early 1-0 in the tournament.
St. Paul 75, Guam High 64 OT
In a thrilling overtime battle, the St. Paul Warriors used an 11-0 run in overtime to defeat the Guam High Panthers, led by John San Andres 28-point outing. San Andres had missed a game-winning tip in regulation which sent the game into overtime when the Warriors took over.
The largest lead by any team was held by the Guam High Panthers, which was six points. It was a gritty back-and-forth battle by both teams from start to finish.
Kurt Edusada and Rodney Taitague each had 19 points for the Panthers in the loss. Point guard Arther Rhodes added 14 for the Warriors.
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