THE REDEEM TEAM
After last year’s season filled with injuries, health issues and key players out due to personal matters, Team Salak underperformed and was unable to reclaim the 2017 ABL title finishing the year with a disappointing 2-5 record, not even reaching the final four. Morale was down during the summer of 2017. We needed a comeback, we needed redemption, and we desperately wanted our title back.
Hopes were high coming into the 2018 season,with the return of the man mountainTim Salak, the defensive anchorof the team providing us with much rim protection and dominant control of the boards, which we heavily needed the previous year. Also returning to the lineup was three-point specialistCarlo Banzon who just recovered from his ACL and MCL operations.
Of course, leading the team with his every game stellar performance was our captain Miguel Abellada who developed a new sense of leadership this year. He would start and end every game with a speech that would ignite us and prepare ourselves to do battle in the court as well as compliment the little things the role players of the team would provide. He also learned how to trust and get his teammates more involved in the court. This is how he transcended from a good basketball player into something much greater as he made his teammates shine as well.
We started the regular season with victories against Team Sangalang, Team E, and Team Viernes but suffered a terrible blow out against team H that paid a huge toll in our standing. To add to the blow, we lost to Team Sangalang, which resulted into us falling into the fourth seed in the tournament.
At that point our Captain Miguel called for a team huddle after the game and asked us if we really wanted the championship or not. He told us that if we wanted it, we needed to push ourselves and play to our fullest. We all knew we didn’t want a repeat of 2017 to happen and if we wanted to win the next games, we had to bring back the never die grit and grind attitude we once had back in the 2016 season.
This served as our wake up call and practices were set every Thursday to work on our weaknesses and give us a better sense of direction. We focused on breaking the full court press, setting pick and roll plays, setting screens for our teammates who didn’t have the ball to create more shooting space and most importantly moving without the ball during offense. In these practices, scrimmages became more intense as losers had to perform sprints and pushups as their consequence. These practices not only helped us get into better physical condition but mentally prepared us for the succeeding games.
There were two remaining games in the season and we needed to win both of them to advance to the semi finals. It was going to be a tough road since the two games we were facing were Team H, the team that decimated us during the regular season and a Team Viernes led by offensive powerhouse Paul Sorongon who wanted their revenge on us.
With our Captain Miguel leading the way, we were able to overcome both games advancing us to the semifinals with everyone in the team contributing and offering more than what we usually did. Tim Salak dominated the paint offensively and defensively both games, as players feared entering the paint without being crushed by the Big Bad Beast. Carlo Banzon channeled his inner Dwayne Wade mentality as he passed his defenders with his isolation plays and a newly developed pick and roll with Miguel Abellada that served as our bread and butter play. Starting forward Mikko Santos offered his Tim Duncan like fundamentals and deadly pull up and fade-away jumpers. Point guard, Jim Bacarro ‘s fearless drives and unending cardio gave us an upbeat offensive tempo, against Team Viernes. Co-captain, Greg Villanueva was the team’s enforcer and kept the team’s spirits high with his intensity keeping the team’s grit and grind mentality. Vinci Mercado played extra minutes in the point guard position becoming a menace with his Patrick Beverly style of dirty defense and hustle. Ryan Escalona suddenly became a three-point machine against Team H shooting 3 out of 4 giving us a secret weapon off the bench. Paolo Rocco ‘s silky smooth ball handling and three point bank shots became another arsenal, which gave us more firepower offensively.
With their newly found confidence, Chino Copuyoc and Mikko San Pablo became offensive finishers, making baskets when they counted at high percentages.
Back up big men Rigs Urgino, Choy Hernadez, and Norbie Mendoza provided much rest for our two star Big Men, holding the fort and creating space for the shooters of the team.
The championship team from 2016 was back and with Miguel Abellada leading his Men, the sight of claiming the championship was getting closer.
The semifinal game against Team H was a tough challenge. These guys were past champions themselves and had a systematic way of playing basketball where all their players were involved in the ball rotation and everyone in their team was capable of becoming an offensive threat as well. It was a battle between two Titans who both wanted to reclaim past glory and get a shot of that championship game against MVP Paolo Dizon and the top seeded Team E.
Down by two points at the dying minutes of the fourth quarter, Miguel Abellada made two clutch free throws, which tied and forced the game into overtime. During the extra 5 minutes, Team H focused its defense on our star player Miguel Abellada giving some space to Carlo Banzon to hit a three-point basket to get a comfortable lead at the start of OT. Jim Bacarro and Tim Salak both made their free throws to keep us in the lead. To finish the game off, our captain Miguel Abellada delivered the dagger with a foul counted basket as well as sinking his free throw for a three-point play. We had claimed victory against a giant of a team. It was a big test for us and now there was only one team standing in the way of reclaiming the ABL Championship title, which was once ours.
It was March 17, The Final Game of The season against Paolo Dizon, the season MVP and top-seeded, defending champions Team E.
Before the championship game started, our captain,Miguel Abellada called the team for another team huddle like he always did and told us something that sparked more fire in our hearts. He started by telling us how he was proud of what the team has had accomplished throughout the season. He then told us that for this championship, we dedicate the win for our teammate, Jim Bacarro and his family. We were now hungrier than we ever for this was more than just winning back the title we once had but winning the championship in honor of our brother and his family.
This was probably the most difficult and challenging game of the season. MVP, Paolo Dizon was drilling three pointers and was scoring at will. There was so much we could do to sop this offensive juggernaut. Every single player from our team played as if it was his last. The starters played with much ferocity and the bench mob stepped up their game making big baskets while the starters s needed their rest. Despite a comfortable 10-point lead at the end of the third quarter, Paolo Dizon and his marksmen of shooters came back and narrowed our lead by a single point. As always our captain, Miguel Abellada became our Rock, the team’s foundation. We had someone to lean on when the team was crumbling at the last few minutes of the final quarter. Our leader, with his newly developed mentality maintained his composure, kept our minds stable and executed big offensive plays to keep us in the lead. The twin tower tandem of Miguel Abellada and Tim Salak neutralized Paolo Dizon, keeping him from penetrating the paint. Ever reliable Mikkosantos, JimBacarro and Carlo Banzon were prepared, as these three delivered big buckets when our star player Miguel Abellada was being double teamed. The Big bad beast, Tim Salak willed his way down the paint, capturing rebound after rebound, scoring put backs and tip ins Team E couldn’t seem to stop. Down to the remaining 30 seconds of the game, our captain Scored a big basket and drew a foul in which gave us a comfortable four point lead. It was crunch time and crucial free throws by Tim Salakand Jim Bacarro were made to keep up as the lead at the dying seconds of the game. The game ended with defensive stops and crucial offensive rebounds by the big bad beast, Tim Salak.
“He who controls the boards, controls the game.”- HanamichiSakuragi
We had won the hard fought battle! The long road had ended. Glory was ours! We were the champions once again but more importantly; we had seized the day for our brother Jim!
This is the story of Team Salak’s 2018 ABL season. The 2018 ABL champions
The Redeem Team, This one’s for you Jimmy B.