Emotional was Basilan-Jumbo Plastic Medical Depot head coach Jerson Cabiltes after his squad defeated Mindoro-EOG Burlington in the quarterfinals of the 2021 Chooks-to-Go MPBL Invitational.
After all, they are back in the semifinals of the league — the same position they were in before the ongoing coronavirus pandemic hit the country.
“Just feels so emotional right now,” expressed Cabiltes, a product of De La Salle University. “Talagang sobrang sarap ng feeling na nakabalik kami kasi from the previous conference, we had a chance to get the chip.
“Right now, ang bait talaga ni Lord dahil nabigyan kami ng second chance and we are out here to prove ourselves.”
Back in March of 2020, Basilan was supposed to take on Davao Occidental in the win-or-go-home Game Three of the Southern Finals. Due to the pandemic, the game was postponed to a year later.
When the MPBL resumed early this year in a bubble format, Basilan could not get clearance to play in the Subic bubble as some players and staff of the team tested positive for the virus. It resulted to them forfeiting the game.
Nine months later, the team has already moved on from what happened. And now, Basilan has rampaged their way to the final four.
But the next task is to hurdle Pasig-Sta. Lucia as they face off at 7:30PM on Wednesday night.
And Cabiltes knows they can’t let their guards down against the Realtors.
“Sa tingin ko kasi, masyadong malakas yung Pasig with the acquisition of Fran Yu,” he remarked. “Nung quarters nga, bumanat siya ng clutch shots. Na-fill nila yung void nila coming from the other tournament. So we are just going to prepare hard for them kasi yung team namin ngayon, may new players rin.
“Ang magiging advantage namin is yung surprises nila tulad nila Encho [Serrano] and Jaymar [Gimpayan] kasi nga we are coming from different brackets kasi. Yung unfamiliarity ng Pasig, yun yung magiging advantage namin hopefully.”
Will there be added motivation for Basilan tonight? Cabiltes does not believe so.
“Actually, I’m just proud of my players because they played with all heart. We don’t need extra motivation because self-motivation is the best motivation you can get.”
