COUGARS COME THROUGH OVER WARRIORS

By Paradis Fejerang

Under new head coach Arleen Mad, the Academy Cougars got over the hump over basketball rival St. Paul Warriors 47-38 Tuesday night in the Interscholastic Girls Basketball League at St. Paul.

The two teams have matched up in the last six years for the IIAAG league title, with the Warriors getting the best of the Cougars.

Academy came out red hot, taking an 18-8 lead after the first quarter behind the shooting of junior Maddy Ada’s eight points. She finished with 13 on the night.

St. Paul point guard Ryanna Ngirchomlei tried to single-handedly pull the Warriors back with 12 of her game-high 17 points in the third quarter, pulling them to within a point at 37-36. Sazzy Quintanilla added 10 on the night.

The Warriors offense, however, couldn’t find the bucket with only two points the entire fourth quarter.

“It was a good game, they’re a really good team,” Academy’s Ada said. “It was our first game of the season, so we were just excited to play and excited to see how the team would look and what we need to work on.

“We started off strong. Going into the second half, we knew they were going to come at us with high intensity, so I think we just needed to calm down and just trust in ourselves and our teammates and our coaches. Going into the fourth quarter, I think we did a lot better of a job offensively and mentally.”

Now that the IIAAG and ISA leagues are combined once again under the administration of the Guam Basketball Confederation, all schools get to play each other once again.

“I’m excited – I’m not going to underestimate any of the teams,” Ada commented. “We’re going to come with our full strength and just focus on ourselves and improve on what we need to improve on.”

The Warriors fall to 1-1. They beat Guam High last Friday 44-40 in their season opener.