FRIARS, WARRIORS MARCH ON TO IIAAG FINALS

By Jay Leon Guerrero

The FD Friars and the St. Paul Warriors will face each other once again in the IIAAG Boys Basketball Championship game. The undefeated Friars easily handled the ND Royals 95-54 and the Warriors defeated the Guam High Panthers 66-49 on their home court.

This will be the fifth straight championship game between the Friars and the Warriors. The score will be settled with each team winning two championships in the last four years.

Here’s the breakdown:
2019 – St. Paul defeat FD 44-41 (Jahmar White MVP year)
2020 – FD defeats St. Paul 55-35 (Matt Fegurgur MVP year)
2021 – FD defeats St. Paul 70-63 (Matt Santos MVP year)
2022 – St Paul defeats FD 55-45 in OT (Josiah Quintanilla/Kaine Santos Co-MVP year)
2023 – ?????

The Friars are undefeated for the season and won by a larger margin on the home court. The Warriors had to battle the third-seed Panthers to stamp their ticket to Friday’s finale.

The atmosphere was electric at the St. Paul gym with two rivals going head-to-head in a semifinal battle.

The Panthers led 25-23 by halftime but the home team had a big third quarter and went up 43-32 led by Raeven Pascual who scored 11 points in the quarter.

The Warriors continued to play good defense and won the game 66-49. Xander Sanchez led the Warriors with 22 points,  Pascual had 19 points. Jamel Romero led the Panthers with 13 points. 

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