RP cagebelles due for SEABA breakthrough

MANILA, Philippines - Officials are confident the Perlas ng Pilipinas team is ripe for a breakthrough title when the cagebelles compete in the seventh Southeast Asian Basketball Association (SEABA) Championship for Women’s beginning Sunday at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium.

Describing the squad as the “best ever assembled,” Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas deputy executive director Bernie Atienza and team manager Cynthia Tiu expressed belief the Filipina dribblers will finally strike gold in the Oct 24-29 meet.

“This is the best women’s basketball team assembled for any international competition and I have all confidence that this team is being trained well. We expect to win the championship and make up for 30 years of frustration in women’s basketball,” Atienza said during yesterday’s PSA Forum.

The Filipinas have yet to win a Southeast Asian basketball crown since the late 1970s, with their best finish being runners-up thrice in the SEA Games (‘81, ‘83, ‘95) and once in the SEABA (2007).

“The team has been together since 2007 and we even sent them to Australia for a 10-day training last May and to Qatar for invitational games. We’re very ready for the SEABA and I don’t have any doubts that we will win the gold,” Tiu said, for her part.

Leading the Perlas ng Pilipinas quintet are holdovers of the squad that placed second to Thailand in the 2007 SEA Games, Cassy Tioseco, Aurora Adriano, Dianne Rose Jose, co-captains Joan Grajales and Sylvia Marie Valencia, and Fil-Ams Melissa Jacob and Anna Pineda.

Coach Haydee Ong said her squad, which has an average height of 5’8 with Tioseco as the tallest at 6’0, will bank on their defense, quickness and shooting against defending SEABA champ Thailand, reigning SEAG queen Malaysia, as well as Singapore and Indonesia.

“Our team is aº mix of veteran and young players. The strength of the team will be our defense and execution on transition offense. We’ll use our quickness to press a lot and compensate on our lack of height with quickness and improved shooting,” said Ong.

Out to give the Filipinas’ a rough ride to the podium are Thailand, which will parade the same lineup as its SEAG crew under a new Chinese coach, and Malaysia, which retained the core of its representatives to last year’s Fiba Asia Championship for Women.

But the RP cagebelles will have the luxury of a “sixth man,” having to play in front of local crowd.

“This is our best chance to win a Southeast Asia-level tournament,” said Atienza.

The RP ladies, though, will not be able to parade its Chinese prospect for naturalization, Xiaojing Zheng yet. The 6’3 Zheng is still in the process of acquiring her naturalization papers.