The day opened with an exciting game between Chuuk and Kosrae. It was a very physical battle throughout with few fouls being called and both teams responded to the referee’s generosity and literally threw themselves at the ball. A big 1^st quarter by Kosrae saw then with a handy lead at the first break of 13 points but from thereon Chuuk got themselves back into the game and reduced this to 8 by the big break. The second half was close throughout and Chuuk got within 3 points on several occasions but Kosrae had the best of the final minute to emerge winners 88-80.

RMI women proved far too skilled and knowledgeable for their less experienced Chuuk opponents, leading at all changes to have a comfortable 77-27 win. For RMI Rani Hadley and Yolani Matthew led the scoring with 15 and 14 respectively and for Chuuk, Aphtarisia Lodge and Erika Bossy contributed most of all.

The Guam and RMi men’s game had an unusual game start with neither team able to score in the first 3 minutes. At 5 minutes the score was only 3-2 in favour of RMI. By half time Guam had a comfortable break and went on to dominate the score sheet with the final score at 79-49. For Team Guam Romeo Sanchez and John Chaco had 13 each while Stanton Iban was RMI’s main contributor with 11.

In the main women’s game of the day Guam met up with Palau in what was a close game throughout. The lead changed throughout the game many times and with a 23-26 score line in favour of Palau at the half, it was always going down to the wire. Guam won the 3^rd quarter and led by 7 at that change. Palau outscored their opponents in the last quarter and with a last shot at the buzzer that failed to tie the game to send it to overtime, Guam won 51-49. For Guam Kathryn Castro had 19 and Brianna Benito had 15 points, while for Palau Sesengel Ketebengang scored 14 and Jaime Ngirausui got 10.

The final game of the day between CNMI and Palau was always close, with the lead changing throughout the game time and time again. Prolific scorer Jericho Cruz of CNMI was the big difference knocking in 28 points for the game and Dan Barcinas contributed 14 in the 6 point CNMI win (67-61). For Palau their main scorer was Raymond Watson with 24 and he was supported on the score sheet by Arnold Undecimo with 10.

In today’s games RMI men play Pohnpei at 11.00am, Chuuk women face CNMI at 1.00pm, Kosrae and CNMI meet up at 3.00pm, Palau women will look to get their second win against RMI at 5.00pm and Palau men meet the might of Guam at 7.00pm.

CHECK OUT THE SCORE AND STATISTICS ON OUR WEBSITE BY CLICKING ON THE FIXTURES/RESULTS LINK IN THE LEFT PANEL.