MANILA, Philippines – Whoever said that Pacific Town Army was tough did not tell the truth.
They are tough and plenty brave.
What kind of score is 41-39? That’s like a half of a basketball game (in the amateur level). In fact, the match almost took three hours to complete.
The Lady Troopers lost the first two sets to the Choco Mucho Flying Titans, 41-39 and 25-19. That’s enough to send a lesser team packing via three-set sweep. But no. PTA took the next three sets, 25-19, 25-20 and 15-12, to win this marathon contest as both coaches — Oliver Almadro of Choco Mucho and Kung-Fu Reyes of PTA emptied their benches (leaving only one player on the sidelines).
In some ways, it reminded me of BaliPure’s first ever game as a pro club where they lost to another military team, Philippine Air Force, despite being a talent-laden squad. Clearly, talent isn’t everything.
The pro game is altogether different from the college game. Here you face carefully structured teams. And PTA has its own contingent of long time pros and national team players in the ageless and incredible Mary Jean Balse, Nene Bautista and Jovelyn Gonzaga with a lot of firepower from former Perpetual Help Lady Altas star Honey Royse Tubino. Gonzaga and Lut Malaluan also showed the way defensively to turn the game around.
And it was an inspirational performance by Gonzaga. She scored 24 points and on defense, chalked up 26 excellent digs and 16 excellent receptions. And she has done this throughout her career even back when I covered her while she was still playing for Central Philippine University in Iloilo.
PTA, like the other military teams, always hangs tough; they know well enough that it isn’t over until it’s over.
Choco Mucho can only tip their collective hats off to PTA and learn from this. And what can you say about Kat Tolentino? She has really emerged as a top player. I recall when she first came up with Ateneo, people were saying that she could reach lofty heights. She has bucked major injuries to lead Ateneo to a title and become a go-to player for her first club team, Choco Mucho.
Speaking of that other military team, the Philippine Air Force Lady Jet Spikers lost a five-setter to BaliPure (26-24, 16-25, 25-19, 17-25, 17-15). BaliPure head coach Rommel Abella got good performances from a lot of players and finally saw them notch a win against a long losing streak that dated back to the Reinforced Conference (they snapped a 12-game slide).
If you look at the good teams, you see contributions from many players and that is why Creamline and PTA are at the top and both undefeated at 4-0 and 2-0, respectively. Banko Perlas fell to Creamline with few contributions and another subpar match from Nicole Tiamzon.
Creamline is looking to pull away while the other teams jockey for position.