GILAS PILIPINAS SHOWS TRUE WORTH IN IMPRESSIVE WIN OVER JORDAN
By Ronnie Nathanielsz
PhilBoxing.com
Sat, 03 Aug 2013
Gilas Pilipinas which loosely translated means "courageous", lived up to its name with an impressive victory over Jordan in which the Filipinos showed their true worth as a team to win their second straight game in Group A of the FIBA Asia Champinships to set up what is expected to be an emotionally charged clash with Chinese-Taipei who sent the Filipinos a message by beating Saudi Arabia 90-67 while we appeared to struggle to beat the Saudis 78-66 on Thursday.
What many fans didn?t realize was that coach Chot Reyes, with an eye on the tougher assignments against Jordan and Chinese-Taipei played his cards close to his chest and didn?t reveal his game-plan against the Saudis keeping it for the bigger games ahead.
After a disappointing first half in which the Philippines was down 38-33 Reyes had some choice words for his wards at halftime that obviously fired them up as they came out with a scintillating 23 to 4 run in the first 8:32 of the third quarter that had the huge crowd cheering wildly.
Shooting star Jeff Chan lit up the Mall of Asia Arena in the second half while point guard Jayson Castro Williams weaved in-and-out of traffic like a jeepney to bamboozle his defensive man taking him off the dribble with impunity and added insult to injury with a big triple at 5:16 of the third and a steal which he converted on a fastbreak to give the Philippines a 49-42 lead with 3:18 remaining in the third quarter.
Reyes who shuffled his men in masterful fashion sent lanky Japeth Aguilar in for naturalized player Marcus Douthit and he responded quickly to the delight of the fans with back-to-back jumpers to increase the lead to 11, 53 to 42.
Jordan?s naturalized player Jimmy Baxter who scored 30 points in the previous game was shackled all game long by Gabe Norwood before Baxter bled for a basket and made one of two free throws to end the third quarter with Gilas Pilipinas in front 57-47.
After Aguilar drove baseline, was fouled and canned both free throws to ease the Philippines in front 61-47 with 9:18 remaining in the game before errors began to creep in allowing Jordan to cut the lead to 61-54 on a 7-2 mini run forcing Reyes to call a timeout to settle their nerves.
A triple by Baxter with 6:35 remaining cut the Philippines lead to 6 at 63-57 but once again the crowd got into the act and when Norwood came up with a terrific block Castro scored on a fastbreak before Baxter converted two free throws on a Ranidel de Ocampo foul.
Norwood who hounded Baxter stole off the naturalized Jordanian and Chan swished the hoop with a classic triple to ease the pressure 68-59 before Castro whizzed past his man and drove to the asket to make it 70-59 time down to 4:23 forcing Greek coach Alexandris Evangelos to sue for time.
Five straight points by Mohammad Hadrab on a triple and two free throws cut the lead once again to six 70-64 before skipper Jimmy Alapag buried a mighty triple for a 73-64 tally before de Ocampo committed another foul on Baxter who scored but missed the bonus shot.
However, in scramble for the loose ball Aguilar was called for a foul and Wesam Al S ous made no mistake to cap a 9-3 Jordanian run with 16.7 seconds remaining forcing Reyes to call a timeout with the score 73-68.
Ahmad Alhamarshen fouled Gary David who coolly sank both charities to make it 75-68 before Castro grabbed an offensive rebound and was fouled on the next play and made the two shots for a 77-68 count before Al Sous nailed a triple at the buzzer to leave Gilas Pilipinas worthy winners 77-71 with a massive game against Chinese-Taipei late Saturday for the top spot in Group A with both squad sporting 2-0 slates entering their showdown.
The Philippines was deadly from the outside converting 44 percent from beyond the arc with Chan making 5 out of 7 and De Ocampo 3 out of 6. They also pressured Jordan defensively resulting in 17 turnovers.
Chan top scored with 17 points, Castro had 16 and Norwood a superb all-around game to finish with 8 points, 8 rebounds, 4 assists 2, steals and 2 shot blocks.
Coach Chot Reyes who is probably more demanding than most coaches said, in a post-game interview, he was ?still not happy. We can be happy on August 11 (the day of the finals). I think we are fooling ourselves if we allow ourselves to be happy. There?s a lot of room for improvement. But our theme is ?better?. Just to keep getting better every game because in the pre-game I reminded my players this isn?t a sprint . This going to be a long drawn out race and the way to go deep in the race is to continue to get better. And I felt we were better tonight (against Jordan) than we were last night (against Saudi Arabia). Hopefully we can be better tomorrow (vs Chinese-Taipei.)?
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