By Roselyn B. Monroyo
Variety News Staff

DEFENDING champion Saipan Southern High School will have an early rematch with Mt. Carmel School, as the Manta Rays and the Knights square off in the opening of the 2007 MISA High School Basketball League this Friday.
The Manta Rays-Knights tiff is set for 7 p.m.
The girls’ teams of Mt. Carmel and Saipan Southern will meet in the first game at 5 p.m. This will be the first time in three years that the Knights are fielding a squad in the girls’ division.
A brief opening ceremony is to take place at 4:30 p.m. at the Marianas High School Gym before the high school basketball action kicks off this year.
The Manta Rays, which ruled the boys’ division in 2004 and lost to the Knights in 2005, regained the championship last year after
edging Mt. Carmel, 85-77, in the finals.
The winner-take-all championship showdown was played in overtime proving that neither team was willing to give up the throne.
2006 MVP Jack Lizama and Preston Basa were the forces behind the Manta Rays’ title win last year. Lizama nailed the basket that sent the game into overtime, while Basa scored six of SSHS last eight points in the extension period to help the Manta Rays regain the high school caging crown.
Only Basa will be back this season, as Lizama graduated last year.
Other returnees for Southern are forward Bill Babauta and point guards Mike Eclevia and Ernest Duenas.
The Knights will be missing a lot of faces from their lineup last year.
The Chalan Kanoa-based squad will try to regain the title without 2005 MVP Dan Barcinas, Kovin Ogumoro, Robert Naraja and Jeff Deleon Guerrero.
Meanwhile, Southern will have back-to-back games, as it meets the MHS Dolphins next Wednesday.
Matches in the MISA caging will be played every Wednesday and Friday at the MHS Gym.
Teams in the girls’ division will play first starting at 4:30 p.m., while matches in the boys’ division will begin at 6:30 p.m.
The regular season will be a double round-robin format with all four teams advancing to the playoffs.
In the playoffs for both the boys and girls’ divisions, the No. 1 team faces the No. 4 squad for the first finals berth, while the No. 2 and No. 3 teams will contest the last finals ticket.