They came, they saw, they conquered
By Jesus A. Garcia Jr.
SANS doubt, I believe the Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League (MPBL) owned by former senator Manny “Pacman” Pacquiao is one of the major national sporting events in the country today. Records show that our beloved province already produced standouts in Philippine basketball: Marlou Aquino and Chris Calaguio of Sta. Barbara, Jun Marzan, Lordy Tugade and Rey Evangelista of Alaminos City, Ronnie Magsanoc of Lingayen, Orlando Bauzon of Calasiao, Romualdo Cabading of Villasis, Romulo Mamaril of Malasiqui, Patrick Fran of Agno, Jimmy Javier of Binmaley, father-and-son Floreindo and Renren Ritualo and Marc Pingris of Pozorrubio, to mention some big names in this James Naismith-invented sport. Some of our provincemates represented our nation in international tilts and brought honors to our country. I believe this is one of the big reasons why our province formed and fielded our team called “Pangasinan Heatwaves” for the first time after six seasons of MPBL.
The MPBL 2024 season started last April 6 with 29 teams. And to my surprise, the top honchos of the MPBL officials headed by Pacquiao himself unanimously decided to hold the inaugural host of the annual tourney at the Calasiao Sports Complex.
I managed to watch the fifth game held in Calasiao on June 22 where our Pangasinan squad was the main event of the day and was pitted against the Quezon City five. I saw how our local boys led in the first quarter, 26-18, overtaken in the second, 38-41, recaptured the front in the third, 58-54, but eventually succumbed in the fourth and final canto, 74-78, our third loss out of five hosting.
Many basketball fans that watched the hostility sadly commented that we should have won the game if not for that costly error pass by Pangasinan’s center the six-foot-three Jay-R Taganas. Pangasinan team was leading by two points, 74-72, after the successful four free throws of guard Hesed Gabo and forward Mina with 27 seconds left in the ball game. Quezon City head coach Edgar Macaraya called a timeout and set up a play and luckily its forward player but seldom-used Jippy Cauilan buried a three-point shot from the arc section to take the lead by just one point, 75-74, with 5.7 ticks left that shocked the local crowd. Pangasinan head coach Jerson Cabiles quickly called a timeout to set up a play with 5.7 seconds remaining. But “expect the expected” when our boys failed to score a winning basket after Willy Yambing was deliberately fouled and after a successful rebound and converted the last two free throws of the game to the disappointment of the home crowd.
Pangasinan now cards five wins with nine losses, ranked 11th out of 14 teams in the Northern Division as of this writing (June 27). The Quezon City squad improved to six victories with eight defeats and on the 8th spot.
Quezon City’s play-maker Paul Garcia scored a game high 20 points while Pangasinan’s point-guard Hesed Gabo had a team high score of 17 points. Like what happened in our games against Abra and Binan fives, they came, they saw, they conquered us in our own territory.
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QUOTE OF THE WEEK: “He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.” JOHN 3: 36
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