By Roselyn B. Monroyo
Variety News Staff

THE 2007 season of the Marianas Interscholastic Sports Association high school basketball competition will kick off on Jan. 19 at the Marianas High School Gym.
According to event coordinator Joel Punzalan of Saipan Southern High School, four teams each in the girls’ and boys’ division will vie for the championship.
The SSHS Manta Rays will be defending their title against Kagman High School, Marianas High School and Mt. Carmel School.
Saipan Southern dethroned the 2005 champions MCS Knights with an 85-77 victory in the winner-take-all finals last year.
Mt. Carmel will be fielding a team in the girls’ division, which will also feature the Kagman Lady Ayuyus, the SSHS Lady Manta Rays and back-to-back champions MHS Lady Dolphins.
The Lady Dolphins ruled the girls’ division for the second straight year after whipping the Lady Rays, 47-32, in last year’s championship match.
According to Punzalan, games in the annual high school basketball tournament will be played every Wednesday and Friday at the MHS Gym.
The first game will feature the girls’ division and will start at 4:30 p.m. Matches in the boys’ division will start at 6:30 p.m.
The regular season will be a double round-robin tournament. Each team will play six games in the regular season. Punzalan said they have yet to decide on a format for the playoffs.
Coaches and team representatives of participating schools will meet this afternoon to discuss the tournament ground rules and other details about the annual caging.
Punzalan said that this year’s tournament will be well organized, as all coaches/representatives, are involved in the planning of the MISA caging.
“We will also have a brief opening on Jan. 19 at MHS. We will introduce the players of each team and then after the opening, they are ready to rumble,” Punzalan said.
The Manta Rays coach promised that this year’s tournament will be very intense, as all the participating teams have been preparing for the past months and have strengthened their lineups with new recruits.
“Games will be tough and intense and this is good because we want to raise the level of high school basketball on the island,” Punzalan said.
Aside from raising the level of competitiveness of high school cagers, Punzalan added that they are also focusing on the student-athletes’ academic performance.
“Students who are failing are not allowed to join the tournament. They must have an average grade of 2.25 or higher. Coaches are asked to provide proof of the players’ academic performance,” Punzalan added.