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Warriors: From pretender to contender
By Jonas Terrado
(January 22, 2009)

Over the past few years, Bacchus has been considered as the doormat of the Philippine Basketball League.

Since entering the league in 2004, the team never had a winning campaign nor they did they made it past the quarterfinals. And despite a collection of young players from the collegiate ranks, it was not enough to compete against the best teams in the league.

But that changed in the 2009 PBL PG Flex Linoleum Cup as the Energy Warriors became a team that is making a serious threat towards the title after clinching their first-ever semifinals berth in franchise history. They beat beating Burger King, 69-60, in Saturday's quarterfinal action at the Guadalupe Viejo Sports Complex in Makati City to earn the said spot.

Leading by 21 points, Bacchus saw its lead trimmed down to only four with less than two minutes until Paul Lee saved the day with a medium-range jumper with 36 seconds left that ended the Stunners' campaign.

In that game, Lee finished with a double-double of 17 points and 11 rebounds as he continued his surprising debut in the amateur cage league.

"Time and time again, he bailed us out," said head coach Lawrence Chongson. "Paul really proved that he can be a superstar despite being a PBL rookie."

Bacchus surged ahead in the first half led by the contributions of James Martinez and Rey Guevarra as both hit all of the team's six three-pointers that set up the team's early lead.

Looking back at the team's past struggles, Chongson was glad to mentor a group of cast-offs and low-round draft picks that enabled them to reach the Final Four.

"Malaking motivation namin yung mga every heartaches, lahat ng failures na naendure namin noon. Every conference na lang we have to rebuild," Chongson, who made his first semis appearance with Mail & More back in the 2007 Heroes Cup, said. "Since bago yung core ng mga players ko this time around. I shared my experiences and what transpired before and kung anu magiging different this time," he added.

And from there, Lee, Martinez, Guevarra have stepped up while the likes of UE stalwarts Val Acuna, Rudy Lingganay and Pari Llagas along with draft picks Orlando Daroya, Jan Colina, Khalif Fortune and John Foronda have also produce big when needed.

But the one player that outshoned everybody on the team, and perhaps even in the PBL, was Lee, who led the league in scoring with 16.8 points on 48 percent shooting in just his rookie season. The UE guard had a career-high 27 points and 11 rebounds in beating Hapee last December 13.

Lee's effort has totally exceeded expectations after averaging a mere four points a game for the Red Warriors during the recent UAAP season.

It wasn't an easy run for the Energy Warriors, though, they started out with a 2-2 record but a three game skid, including two straight losses to Magnolia Purewater Wizards, put them in danger getting an early boot. But they made a surprise turnaround by winning four consecutive games, including an upset of five-time champion Harbour Centre that sealed their place in the quarters.

Now that they are in the semifinals against the Wizards, which starts today, they hope to go further and make the finals for the first-time ever.

"Yun ang gusto naming mangyari (to reach the finals). We'll worked hard for it, nandyan na rin lang eh, kung baga destiny's child kami," Chongson proclaimed.

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