After a grueling Game 3 of the Women’s Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League Finals, the Pilipinas Aguilas took home the title against the UST Growling Tigresses on April 23, 2025, at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium.
Pressure in a Do-Or-Die Game
At the end of the first quarter, the Pilipinas Aguilas saw themselves trailing 3 – 14 in a win-or-go-home Finals match. But they didn’t let the pressure get into their system.
After a horrible start, they managed to get into the ball game and claim the lead before going to halftime, 28 – 26. Then, it was haymakers after haymakers. Both teams refused to bow down to one another.
In the 4th Quarter, Mar Prado extended their lead 51 – 43 after driving to the basket with just 4 minutes remaining. This somewhat sealed the deal for her team as the Aguilas held on to their lead until the final buzzer sounded.
Final score: 54 – 45
Alexis Pana displayed a historical performance as she recorded 13 points, 8 rebounds, 2 assists, and a surprising 5 steals. Aside from Game 3, she averaged 16.3 points, 8.0 rebounds, 4.3 assists, and 3.6 steals in the entire finals, enough for her to earn the league’s first-ever Finals MVP.
Aside from her clutch basket, Mar Prado also had herself the night with 16 points, 12 boards, 3 steals, and 3 blocks. While her teammate Cheska Apag surprised everyone with her best performance throughout 3 games as she got 13 points, draining three 3-pointers, 4 rebounds, 5 assists, and 4 steals.
Growled Until The Very End
No shame in being the 1st runners-up for the UST Growling Tigresses. In the end, they were the last remaining collegiate team to make it out on top, though they fell short of claiming the ultimate prize.
Kent Pastrana had a bad game as she only tallied 8 points, 5 rebounds, and 3 assists. Her teammates, Agatha Bron, Rachelle Ambos, and Karylle Sierba, each scored 8 points. Despite Oma Onianwa grabbing 17 rebounds to go with 6 points, it still wasn’t enough to win the crucial game.
Inaugural Season Awardees
Afril Bernardino led the candidates of the WMPBL Inaugural Season Awardees as she claimed the first-ever league MVP.
She averaged 20.14 points, 11.43 rebounds, 5.3 assists, 5.0 steals, and 2.4 blocks throughout the entire tournament.
This record-breaking performance, however, wasn’t enough to help her team, the Philippine Navy Lady Sailors, move past the Galeries Tower as they faced a twice-to-beat disadvantage in the quarterfinals.
Aside from Bernardino, the other Mythical Five awardees are: Galeries Towers’ Ambie Almazan, University of Santo Tomas’ Kent Pastrana, Discovery Perlas’ Allana Lim, and Pilipinas Aguilas’ Alexis Pana.
Cindy Resultay from the Galeries Tower won the Defensive Player of the Year award as she averaged 4.8 defensive rebounds and 2.7 steals per game in the tournament. The last to win an award was Danica Pacia of Cavite-TOL Patriots, as she won the league’s Sportsmanship award.
Turning a New Page: Becoming a Pro
After a successful inaugural season, the WMPBL became a Professional League and will start its new season in June 2025.
WMPBL started out this early 2025 with a total of 14 teams, a mix of privately owned ball clubs and some collegiate teams. And now, after just a few months, the league enters the Professional status.
This move has given female hoopers to achieve their dreams in making it into the big league, as apart from the collegiate tournaments like UAAP and NCAA, there aren’t any basketball leagues out there that allow women to become players.
Aside from giving every Filipino the opportunity to show their excellence in the game of basketball, this would also allow the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas to scout the potential talents they’ll have in the Philippine National Women’s Team, both in 5×5 and 3×3 tournaments.
WMPBL Commissioner Haydee Ong admitted that there are a lot of things that must be polished to make the league sustainable in the future, like which teams will join, how many imports will they allow per team, and the league tournament format. Whatever the case may be, there’s a lot of excitement in giving Pinoy basketball fans cheer on something new in the following years.
