The Philippine women’s basketball team is in town for the 1st PSC-SBP Women’s Basketball Invitational Tournament, a four-nation competition, that will serve as the Filipinas’ tune-up game for the November Southeast Asian Games in Indonesia.

Head coach Haydee Ong said the Discovery Perlas Pilipinas squad will face China, Thailand, and Qatar in the September 28 to October 1 tournament that will be played at the West Negros University Gym.

China and Thailand will play in the curtain-raiser at 3 p.m., while Philippines will battle against Qatar in the main game.

With the memories of their Southeast Asian Basketball Association triumph against powerhouse Thailand last year, the Philippine women’s basketball team is determined to replicate the feat in the SEA Games this year.

Ong said that what the team lacks in height, they make up for with speed and outside shooting.

She said all her players, including six-foot Cassey Tioseco and five-foot-10 Fatima Tolentino, can shoot from the outside.

Tioseco was back-to-back UAAP Most Valuable Player while playing for Ateneo in 2006 and 2007, while Tolentino war a former mainstay of the University of the Philippines Lady Maroon.

Also in the team is Bacoleña Karen Lomogda and eight-year veterans Pixie Villanueva and Ilongga Joan Grajales.

Coach Ong, herself a former national player and an ex-University of Santo Tomas standout in the early 1990s, said the team is in the thick of preparations for the 2011 SEA Games and most of their drills are geared towards improving their running game.

Team manager Cynthia Tiu expressed her confidence that the each member of the Discovery Perlas Pilipinas national squad are committed to bring honor and pride to the country.

While the country remains focused on men’s basketball and football, she said women’s basketball is taking it one step at a time in tapping talents from the grassroots.

Soon, there will be camps and clinics for women’s basketball where we can find homegrown potentials for the team, Ong said.

Tiu said the core of the present national team was formed in 2007 with open trials. Most of the members, she added, were standouts from the UAAP and they hope to deepen the bench with new recruits later.

Other members of the team Diana Rose Jose, Merenciana Arayi, Mellisa Jacob, Aurora Adriano, Chovi Borja, Treena Ann Limgenco, Analyn Almazan, Ma. Lalaine Flormata, Angeli Jo Gloriani, Marites Gadian, and Bernadette Mercado.*NAB

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