Precious Perlas

Perlas Pilipinas in the SEABA Women’s tournament.

After playing three games in as many days, Afril Bernardino knew there was something amiss as she moved around the floor. Listless and unusually erratic, she was not unlike a confused bird standing on a garden plot filled with worms.

The shots of the back-to-back Most Valuable Player in UAAP women’s basketball weren’t falling like they used to and she fumbled away possessions that, thankfully, hardly influenced the course of the games.

As Bernardino began to doubt herself, teammates rallied behind her, motivating her to push herself to the limits, just like when she led the National University Lady Bulldogs to two straight collegiate championships.

Far Eastern University stalwart Allana Lim knew it was time for her to step up with Bernardino firing blanks. She started the game against Indonesia “feeling very light” and ready for her team’s biggest test after they had run over the opposition by an average of 83 points.

“I struggled in the first three games,” said Bernardino, the quick-footed forward of the country’s national women’s team, Perlas Pilipinas. “My teammates helped me calm down.”

Bernardo responded by scoring 14 points and grabbing 15 rebounds as Perlas scored a vengeful win over dangerous Indonesia, 72-56. Two more wins over similarly tough teams capped Perlas’ six-game sweep for the 2016 Southeast Asian Basketball Association (Seaba) Championship title in Malacca City in Malaysia recently.

Lim topscored for the Filipinos with 24 points and made it to the tournament’s Mythical Five while Bernardino nailed the MVP award in Perlas’ second Seaba victory in seven years.

With the biggest hump in its campaign hurdled, Perlas pipped host Malaysia, 77-73, before coasting to a 20-point rout of former regional powerhouse Thailand, 72-52, for the title.

The victory, a fitting followup to the country’s promotion last year to the elite Group 1 play in the Fiba Asia Women’s Championship, brought the undersized team of collegiate standouts to tears. They came into the tournament not knowing what to expect after dengue downed Ewon Arayi, their veteran star and spiritual leader.

“The tournament (Seaba) was for pride and honor,” says Perlas head coach Patrick Aquino. “Afril outdid herself, coming off three disappointing games, and the Philippines exacted revenge against the Indonesians.”

“We went to Malacca to win,” said forward Ara Abaca of La Salle. “We were confident about it.”

A collection of the best young players in the land, Perlas still hasn’t come to terms with its defeat to underdog Indonesia in last year’s Southeast Asian Games in Singapore. With Perlas’ toughest match against tournament favorite Thailand already won, the result derailed the team’s bid for a sure gold.

“We celebrated early [after besting Thailand] and became overconfident during that game,” recalls Aquino, who still blames himself for that defeat. “I was thinking that the Indonesians could not beat us; we were too good for them.”

The Filipino cagebelles roughed up the Indonesians in their Seaba grudge match with Bernardino coming away with her first productive game after playing passive ball against Singapore, Laos and Vietnam.

The happy final game versus Thailand was just icing on the cake for the Nationals, who have been backed by Blackwater team owner Dioceldo Sy and his Ever Bilena company.

“The championship augurs well for our next campaign,” says Aquino, who wants Perlas to redeem itself in next year’s SEA Games in Malaysia.

The Seaba team may look pretty solid, but this won’t prevent the bench staff, which includes assistant coaches Paul Du and Julie Amos, from finding ways to raise its 5-foot-8 average ceiling.

“We’re allowed to get one tall naturalized player,” says Aquino. “We’re also on the lookout for tall foreign players with Filipino roots.”

In that short list is Fil-Ams Ella Rodriguez, a 5-foot-9 guard who averaged 13.6 points and 9.2 rebounds per game for California’s Citrus College Owles in the US NCAA. She has agreed to suit up for the team but has yet to get the approval of the International Basketball Federation (Fiba) to play for the country.

Two other Fil-Ams—6-0 Kelli Hayes of the University of California Los Angeles Bruins and 5-7 Janae Sharpe of the UC State Northridge Matadors—are also being eyed to bolster Perlas.

“Talent-wise, I think our team is good,” says Aquino. “But we need bigger players if we want to compete against the best teams in Asia.”

Japan is the team to beat in the continent while China, which has four players standing 6-7, has the ceiling the other Asian countries can only dream of.

Bernardino, Lim and Abaca were ably supported in the Seaba team by skipper Raiza Palmera Dy, Camille Sambile and Andrea Tongco of FEU, Chack Cabinbin of Lyceum, Cindy Resultay of University of the East, Janine Pontejos of Centro Escolar University, Analyn Almazan of Adamson, and National University’s Shelley Gupilan and Jack Danielle Animam, the team’s youngest at 17 and tallest at 6-foot-2.