SMART GILAS GRINDS OUT 75-68 WIN OVER CHINESE-TAIPEI, FACES POWERHOUSE IRAN IN SEMIS
By Ronnie Nathanielsz
PhilBoxing.com
Thu, 20 Sep 2012
Smart Gilas Pilipinas found a way to grind out a 75-68 victory over Chinese-Taipei to set up a semi final clash with powerhouse, unbeaten Iran in the FIBA Asia Championships in Tokyo, Japan.
Coach Chot Reyes who coached brilliantly in the Jones Cup winning effort and now again in the FIBA Asia Championships against tougher opposition was the first to concede in a telephone conversation with the Manila Standard that the nationals ?played our worst game coming off two easy games (against Uzbekistan and Macau) and two days off but we found a way to grind it out.?
Poor shooting where the Philippines made 2 of its first 10 attempts and Taipei made 2 of 11 which told the story of the first six minutes of the game with the score tied at 4-4 before a Gabe Norwood jam made it 8-4.
Eight turnovers by Smart Gilas as against four Chinese by Taipei enabled them to take a 13-10 first quarter lead on a bailout triple.
Gary David buried a triple at the start of the second quarter and towering center Marcus Douthit dunk gave the Filipinos the lead 15-13 but Taiwanese-American Douglas Creighton nailed the first of his six triples to regain the lead 16-15 with 6:45 left in the second quarter.
A Douthit rebound and put back followed by a triple from Larry Fonacier edged the nationals in from 20-16 before Creighton who turned out to be a major surprise having hardly played in the previous games connected on another triple to come to within one point 20-19.
A pretty spin move by Douthit and four free throws by Fonacier opened up a 33-25 lead by Smart Gilas with 2:32 left before halftime but after Norwood missed two free throws Creighton scored from beyond the arc to cut the lead to 33-28 before David answered with a triple of his own to go into the dugout with a 38-32 halftime lead.
Chen and David traded triples before the driving Jared Dillinger opened up a seven point lead 49-42 before three massive three point shots by Creighton who went 6 out of 7 grabbed the lead for Chinese-Taipei 53-52. However, Ranidel De Ocampo scored to give the Philippines a precarious one point lead 54-53 going into the payoff quarter.
Five straight points by LA Tenorio beginning with a triple which immediately revived memories of his Jones Cup heroics and a Douthit conversion off a lob pass eased the pressure somewhat at 61-53 with 7:41 to play and with Creighton fading Smart Gilas was poised to pull away to the delight of a small band of flag-waving Filipinos who have lifted the spirits of the Smart Gilas team.
A Jeff Chan three-pointer his first of the game and another huge triple by David from the right corner opened up the Philippines biggest lead of the game at 14 points, 71-57 with 3:51 remaining but Chinese-Taipei refused to give up and kept clawing back with a 7-0 run to come to within seven at 71-64 but time ran out on the game Chinese-Taipei squad as Tenorio coolly sank two free throws and Chan scored on a layup for the final 75-68 count.
Naturalized American Douthit who has been a tower of strength finished with 19 points and 18 bug rebounds while David finished with 14 points and De Ocampo with 10.
Creighton led all scorers with 21 while Lin Chih Chieh had 12 in the losing cause.
The Philippines shot 42 percent from the field, but just 29 percent from the three-point line (7-of-24) and while we enjoyed 50-31 rebounding advantage, the nationals turned the ball over 21 times in an uncharacteristically sloppy display prompting coach Reyes to tell his squad ?We need to play a lot better to have a chance vs Iran tomorrow (Friday.)?
Reyes is hopeful his chargers who edged Iran by two points in the Jones Cup can pull it off even though the Iranians have brought in two stars of its youth team which Reyes said ?makes them much stronger.?
Reyes said the formula must be to ?rebound and run and limit their star player Samad Nik Khahbahrami.?
Reyes said ?if we shoot well it will be a big factor because the Iranians won?t be as quick as Chinese-Taipei to get to our shooters.?
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ronnie Nathanielsz.
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