Boys Who Play Like Men

When I first heard of the news that the Nokia RP U-18 team was joining the FilOil Flying V Cup, I thought that it would be a good exposure for the team. I thought they were capable of getting a couple of wins against the weaker teams but would lose to most, if not all, of the higher ranked teams.

After three games, they are tied with four other teams with 2-1 slates occupying the first to fifth places in Group B. In their first match, they faced the San Sebastian Stags, the reigning NCAA champions. My initial thought was kawawa naman yung mga bata, Baste agad yung  kalaban. Lo and behold, the youngsters shocked the NCAA champs with a 93-88 overtime win. Blue Eaglet Kiefer Ravena torched the Stags with 30 big points, 9 coming in overtime. Oh and by the way, he was also the one who sent the game to overtime with a cold-blooded basket with foul from Calvin Abueva.

The Stags were leading by 10 with a little over three minutes left in the fourth period but the youngsters refused to stay down as the clawed back into the game courtesy of Ravena who single-handedly cut the lead to 3 with less than a minute left. Ravena sent the game to overtime and dominated the extra period securing a morale-boosting win for the Nokia RP U-18 team.

Their second game wasn’t as successful as they were beaten by the FEU Tamaraws. Arguably the best point guard league, RR Garcia, and import Pipo Noundou led the Tams to a 72-54 win over their much younger opponents.

They bounced back nicely against Mapua with a exciting 77-76 win. Ael Banal, son of Alaska assistant coach Joel, took it strong to the hoop after a couple of misses from the freethrow line by Mapua’s Allan Mangahas. It was a two on one fastbreak but Banal decided to get the basket himself against the much-taller Jason Pascual and it paid dividends. He converted on a lay-up that gave them the lead for good.

After three games, all I could say is that these boys are for real. Sure, the boys of San Sebastian may have played too relaxed, but  a team composed of players all under 18 years of age should not be beating NCAA champions, relaxed or not.

With the mentoring of Eric Altamirano, the sky is the limit for these guysand as a Pinoy basketball fan, I’m happy that the pipeline of great Filipino balers isn’t drying up just yet.

PS: I would like to thank Polo Bustamante and Chuck Araneta for making me a guest author in this blog. We should do a podcast soon, you guys.