Monster game vs Petro Gazz to boost Basa, says Valdez

When Creamline made its 2022 Premier Volleyball League Reinforced Conference, Turkish import Yeliz Basa was still finding her timing.

Despite that, she still finished with 17 points in the Cool Smashers' four-set win over PLDT last Thursday.

But Creamline coach Sherwin Meneses knew that the full arsenal of the 35-year-old reinforcement has yet to be shown.

"Si Yeliz naman talagang willingness niya talaga manalo laging nandiyan kahit sa mga crucial points talagang nagdedeliver din naman siya. Hopefully next game, talagang yung laro niya lumabas na," said the bench tactician after their successful first match.

And on Tuesday night, Basa heeded the call and erupted. In another four-set triumph, this time over Petro Gazz, 25-19, 16-25, 25-18, 27-25, Basa went for 28 points on 24 attacks, two blocks, and two aces.

Her back-to-back crosscourt kills also sent the fourth set to a deuce before errors from the Angels and Alyssa Valdez's spike finished the match. Breaking out in her second game,

Valdez said Basa needed this huge confidence booster, a big one over 2019 Reinforced Conference tormentor and champion Petro Gazz.

“Well, definitely it will help us siguro. We can do better as a team din and definitely grabe yung confidence na mabibigay niya kay Yelo,” said Valdez, also the president of Spikers' Turf, Sports Vision's men's league.

The Cool Smashers captain though also said that it can't be Basa all the way, needing contributions from other Creamline wards.

That was the case against the Angels where Valdez had another triple-double of 14 points, 22 digs, and 15 receptions, while Jema Galanza got 13 points.

“Grabe yung effort ni Yelo today, monster points talaga so we really have to help her in terms of the output din so yun lang yung contribution talaga. We have to contribute,” Valdez added.