Stefanie Berberabe etched herself into an exclusive club in Philippine professional basketball after achieving a rare quadruple-double in the WMPBL.
Stefanie Berberabe may be standing alone among women basketball players in the country as the only Filipina to ever record a quadruple-double in Philippine professional basketball, but that doesn’t mean she did it alone.
After achieving the rare feat in just her second game in the Women’s Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League (WMPBL) with the Tagaytay ‘Tol Patriots, Berberabe was quick to deflect the credit to her teammates.
“It’s an honor. It feels good. I definitely wouldn’t have done it without my teammates and coaches,” Berberabe said.
“My teammates make it easy to play on the court with them. They make it fun. So it’s just fun to play out here,” she added.
Before joining Tagaytay, Berberabe was playing in the Australian NBL One with the Joondalup Wolves, where she was also joined by former collegiate rival and compatriot Jhazmin Joson. Missing the first four games for Tagaytay, she came into the team in a 0-4 hole.
But with invaluable experience from her stint in Australia, Berberabe energized the team significantly and led them to back-to-back wins in her two games with them.
With her most recent performance eking out 20 points, 15 rebounds, 10 assists, and 10 steals in the 82-70 victory over the Solar Home-Pangasinan last Sunday night at the Batangas City Coliseum, Berberabe said she is simply trying to get her team to win.
[READ: WMPBL: Stefanie Berberabe makes history as first Filipina to record quadruple-double]
Now at 2-4 for the season, the former NU standout is happy to see her efforts blossom into results – and just in time to salvage a run in the second half of the round robin season.
“My goal was to bring energy, bring grit. I want my teammates to feel like they can bring the energy, the hustle,” she said.
“I want to have that kind of impact on them ‘cause my team is full of a lot of talent but the way you play with your heart and effort takes you really far so I’m excited to bring that to the table."
Still, the job is far from over with the final stretch of the regular season on the horizon.
Without getting too much ahead of themselves, Berberabe hopes to infect her teammates with her energy, and the momentum of her history-making performance, to hopefully catch up with the upper half of the standings.
“Our goal here is to win. We’re taking it game by game. Our mindset is to go in, make sure we play together. We’re still learning to gel together and get that chemistry, but I think we’re getting it one game at a time. We’re putting in the work so I'm excited to see how far we can go.”