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GANDANG PINAY, GANDANG SIMULA
By Joseph W Buduan
(November 29, 2008)
Ever Bilena Gandang Pinay, quite a name
with quite a heritage in the women’s game. For
head coach Pat Aquino, it has been some 10 years since
he handled a WPBL team, and the last time around he
won the championship behind an exciting young swingman
named Julie Amos.
Amos is now his assistant coach with Ever
Bilena and the duo is making fans sit up and notice
how well they work together on the Gandang Pinay bench;
talk about coming full circle.
Undefeated after three games the Gandang
Pinay have a lot to be happy about; this is indeed a
beautiful start. Their last victim was Smart Buddy-UP.
And there was an element of payback in this last victory.
Ever Bilena is bannered by the core of
the Santo Tomas Tigresses while UP’s Lady Maroons
ended the Season 71 campaign of the Tigresses in the
UAAP women’s division Final 4. In that hard-fought
semifinal, RP Team center Fatima Tolentino and multi-skilled
forward Sai Sadorra conspired to eliminate the Tigresses.
Season 71 wasn’t a total disappointment for UST
though as team captain and superstar guard Marichu Bacaro
was named the most valuable player of Season 71.
This was not lost on Aquino either. “This
was sort of payback time for the girls because UP eliminated
them in the last UAAP,” Aquino stated in a post-game
interview. Indeed Bacaro has been arguably the biggest
reason for the immaculate record of Ever Bilena thus
far in the WPBL PG Flex Cup.
Bacaro does everything a pointguard is
supposed to do and then some. With her incredible speed
and ability to stop on a dime and change directions
with the greatest of ease, Bacaro is showing all and
sundry why she is arguably the best player in the women’s
collegiate game now. Not bad for a player who almost
never played ball in the big city.
Bacaro was supposed to play for UAAP powerhouse
Ateneo De Manila; that plan didn’t quite work
out. Because it has always been her dream to play college
ball in the UAAP, then-head coach John Flores referred
her instead to UST head coach Peque Tan. The rest, as
the cliché goes, is history.
When Bacaro sits on the bench it just
seems like the overall quality of the Ever Bilena game
drops a few notches. She has few peers when it comes
to running a team on both ends of the court. Her quick,
darting hands and active feet on defense allow her to
take the ball away even from the most careful ball handlers,
thus fueling the fearsome Ever Bilena transition attack.
And because she is a known scorer she
demands a lot of coverage, sometimes even full court
attention. This allows her other teammates to feed off
her. Perhaps the biggest beneficiaries of her skill
and talent are forward Ramia Buenacosa and swingman
Aiumi Ono.
Buenacosa has been Bacaro’s teammate
and steady sparring partner for the Tigresses the last
three years. They won the 2006 UAAP championship together,
their rookie year in the league. Buenacosa is herself
a superb athlete and provides a perfect foil for Bacaro
– she can run the wings and Bacaro knows how to
get her the ball in her sweet spots.
Ono, a prize find from Cebu, has been
the surprise package and not-so-secret weapon for the
Gandang Pinay. “She was actually brought to my
attention by Coach Julie. Julie told me there is this
girl in Cebu who wants to play ball in Manila, so we
brought her over here and she has done very well. We
are really very lucky to have her,” said Aquino.
The pretty Cebuana had a double-double of 16 points
and 11 rebounds against Smart Buddy-UP in their last
outing.
Buenacosa and Ono are cut from virtually
the same cloth: both are relatively tall and long-limbed
athletes who can keep up with the run and gun style
of the Gandang Pinay and also hit the boards with gusto.
In the halfcourt sets, both are accomplished ball handlers
who can break down defenses with their dribble-penetration.
Even taller forwards and centers find
the going tough trying to contain these two with their
superb footwork and underrated upper-boy strength: even
when they take a solid hit on a drive to the hoop they
are able to keep their bearings and finish strong.
Of course superstars can only take a team
so far. A total team effort is needed for any team to
succeed, especially at the level of play in the WPBL.
Aquino recognizes this and always emphasizes this to
the Gandang Pinay. “Everything still boils down
to a total team effort. Basketball is a team sport,
and when every one is working together it becomes just
a little easier to win games,” explained Aquino.
“Even our bench has been delivering, that’s
why we were able to get this win streak going,”
he added.
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