PHILIPPINES VENTS ITS IRE ON INDIA
By Ronnie Nathanielsz
PhilBoxing.com
Wed, 01 Aug 2007
Playing a squad that the San Miguel Corporation sponsored Philippine National Team should have met in the preliminary round if there was any sense in the FIBA groupings, the nationals vented their ire on a hapless Indian squad to win 104-69 in the consolation round battle for ninth spot at theFIBA Asia Men’s Basketball Championships in Tokushima, Japan.
Only Kuwait stands in the way of an almost certain rematch with China which the Philippines will be forced to play without two key players – Kelly Williams who is suffering from a hamstring injury and Mark Caguiao who is out with a hyper-extended shoulder. However, Jimmy Alapag who sat out the India game with a terrible stiff neck will probably be ready for the clash with China which is determined to salvage some respect with a win over the Philippines after being eliminated at the end of the opening round in Group A’s "Group of Death" just like the Philippines.
The nationals jumped to a 7-0 lead but India retaliated with a 7-2 min-run to tie the score at 9-9. However, a rainbow connection by Dondon Hontiveros gave the Philippines a 25-16 spread at the end of the first quarter. The Indians clawed back and a jump hook by forward Kumar Shiv with 8:01 to halftime capped a 7-2 Indian run to make it 27-25.
Once again the nationals responded with a sizzling 13-0 tear while shutting down the Indians for almost three minutes. A short stab by Danny Seigle capped the run to give the squad a 40-25 lead with 5:16 to go before the break. Guard Sambhaji Kadam, 5’10 who top-scored for India with 12 points buried a triple to cut the deficit to seven at 35-42 and when forward Anoop Mukkanniyil nailed a triple from the corner the Indians had cut the lead to 41-44 before Gabe Norwood drove to the basket and completed a three-point play to give the Filipiinos a 47-41 halftime lead.
The Indians kept it close much of the third quarter and with 6’5" center Sanjay Raj’s put-back with 6:30 to go India closed the gap once again to 50-55 before the Filipinos decided it was time to show their worth and unleashed a 19-0 run to settle the issue with two minutes left in the quarter and the score 74-50.
A pull-up jumper by Dondon Hontiveros with 3:40 remaining in the game saw the RP lead balloon to 27 at 99-62 and the game eventually ended 104-69.
Seigle scored 23 points and was tied with Norwood who also had 23 to go along with five rebounds and several high-flying baskets while FIBA Asia reporter S. Mageshwaran said "Asi Taulava (6'11")towered over the Indians’ whose tallest player, center Muraleekrishna Ravindran, was listed at 6’8".
Coach Chot Reyes who celebrated his 44th birthday said "these are really the difficult games to play because we’ve really prepared our minds to play at this point for higher stakes. However, there’s a job that remains to be done and we’re going out there to finish it the best way we can." Reyes added, "this campaign has gone from winning an Olympic berth to gaining respect. Hopefully we can compete with China given the manpower we have."
Aside from Seigle and Norwood, Ren Ren Ritualo had 18 points on 6-of-13 shooting from beyond the arc while Taulava and Hontiveros had 14 points apiece.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ronnie Nathanielsz.
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