Sen. Sonny Angara’s communications director Dennis Legaspi said the reason why the recently-crowned UNTV Cup champion Senate basketball team is called the Defenders is because “the Senate is the last bastion of democracy and defender of the Constitution.” But wait. Legaspi said there’s another reason.
“The team won the UNTV championship because of chemistry and defense,” said Legaspi. “Senate held Malacañang to an average of 63 points in the best-of-three finals, down from 89 in the tournament.” That’s also why they’re called the Defenders.
Senate won Game 1, 77-62, at the Pasig City Sports Center and made it two in a row in Game 2, 84-64, at the Smart Araneta Coliseum last week. Jeff Sanders, who played for Ginebra in the 2003 PBA season, had 20 points and 14 rebounds in the clincher. Aside from Pasig City and Araneta, venues that hosted games this UNTV Cup season were Olivarez, Upper Deck, Meralco and the JCSGO gym.
Sanders, 46, was the only “import” in the Defenders lineup since Marlon Legaspi, 40, has been employed as a Political Affairs Assistant since 2014 and Sammy (Tata) Marata, 45, as a Public Assistance Officer since 2005. Legaspi played for San Miguel and Shell in the PBA while Marata saw action for Socsargen in the defunct MBA. Marata’s brother RicRic and son Joseph were PBA players. Under UNTV Cup rules, a team may recruit up to three ex-pros with experience in the PBA, MBA or ABL but must be at least 35 and inactive for the past five years. Only two are allowed to play at the same time.
Co-captains of the Senate team were Senators. Angara and Joel Villanueva. In 1994, Villanueva was on the Philippine team that played at the SEABA Championships in Johore. Villanueva was a former UST player. Angara, who is SBP chairman, was on the London School of Economics varsity team in 1991-94 and team captain of the UP Law School squad in 1998. He played on the UP Law School team in 1995-2000.
Others in the Senate team were Ronald Golding of UE, Garri Sevilla of St. Benilde, Harly Ng of Mapua, Rommel Balboa of Perpetual, James Mangaran of the University of Makati and Michael Ortega of PATTS. Senate failed to win a single game in the UNTV Cup last season but rebounded to claim its first crown in the six-year history of the league of public servants. The opposing coaches in the finals were Mike Fermin of Senate and Raffy Gonzalez of Malacañang.
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Magnolia forward Marc Pingris is expected to start rehab this week. Last Wednesday, he underwent a 25-minute surgery to repair the ACL tear in his left knee at St. Luke’s Global City. Pingris was discharged from the hospital the next day and went home. Orthopedic surgeon Dr. Jose Raul (George) Canlas performed the operation.
“Everything went as planned,” said Dr. Canlas, referring to the procedure. “Knowing Ping, holding him back in rehab will be the problem.” Dr. Canlas meant that for sure, Pingris will try to do much more than he’s supposed to instead of patiently following his therapy schedule. It’s because he can’t wait to get back on the court. Pingris, 36, will be out from six to eight months. His PBA contract is expiring this year but the injury shouldn’t affect his marketability.
Now in his 14th PBA season, Pingris sat out 20 games, including all 17 in the Commissioner’s Cup, due to a hip issue last campaign. He averaged 8.1 points, 7.8 rebounds and 28.8 minutes in 32 total games for the year. In the ongoing Philippine Cup, Pingris averaged 6.7 points, 9.3 rebounds and 30.7 minutes. As usual, he was relentless off the boards, grabbing 17 rebounds against Phoenix, 15 against NLEX, 14 against San Miguel Beer, 12 against Blackwater and 10 against Meralco during the eliminations.