Winning Seaba women’s title a must for RP

IT’S the Asian Games or never. This as the women’s national basketball team needs to rule the FIBA (international basketball body)-sanctioned Southeast Asian Basketball Association (Seaba) tournament if it seeks to join the 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games in November.

Coach Heidi Ong said the team must only settle for the gold medal if they want to don the national colors unlike their male counterparts who usually book a trip to the Asian Games by virtue of being regional kings.

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The Philippines will play host to the Seaba championship in June.

And for them to achieve that, Ong said the cagebelles will see action in Australia and then invite teams from China and Japan to play pocket tournaments in Manila.

Ong also disclose that the 6'3" Chinese girl they are tapping as reinforcement is unlikely to make the RP Seaba team due to citizenship issues.

In January, Samahang Basketball ng Pilipinas (SBP) executive director Noli Eala said the organization is mulling the recruitment of Filipino-Americans to compensate for the lack of height of the national team.

“We are hoping to create a try-out for Fil-Americans... We are looking to do that sometime in April so by June, they will have enough time to prepare for the national team,” he said.

“We have never won the Seaba women’s championship. This is one of our goals in the SBP… If not this year, at least until our term in 2012,” Eala added.

Aside from the Seaba women's tilt, the country will also see action in the basketball 3-on-3 event of the Youth Olympic Games in Singapore this August. (Virgil Lopez/Sunnex)