PHILIPPINES SUFFERS PAINFUL LOSS TO CHINESE-TAIPEI
By Ronnie Nathanielsz
PhilBoxing.com
Sun, 04 Aug 2013
The Philippines clawed back from an 11 point halftime deficit, 19-30 with a scintillating third quarter run anchored by hot shooting Larry Fonacier and appeared headed for an emotionally uplifting victory over Chinese-Taipei with a 68-55 lead going into the final quarter.
But coach Chot Reyes pulled out Fonacier, Marcus Douthit who clearly got the better of highly touted naturalized player Quincy Davis and Gabe Norwood which gave the Chinese-Taipei coach an opening to field his best five which quickly responded and when Davis scored on a dunk with 7:48 remaining in the game, the Philippine lead was cut to 5 at 68-63.
Tseng Wen-Ting fouled Douthit who coolly sank both free throws to enable the Philippines to ease in front 70-63 but a 14-2 run by Chinese-Taipei with back-to-back triples by Lu Cheng Ju and Lin Chih Chieh trimmed the lead to one, 70-69 forcing Reyes to call a timeout before another big triple tied the score at 72-72 with 5:05 to play.
Tseng Wen-Ting scored to give Chinese-Taipei the first taste of the lead down the homestretch before Douthit once again got the better of Davis inside to tie the count once again at 74-74. After a turnover caused by good defense Douthit was fouled and converted one of two free throws to edge in front 75-74. With 3:24 remaining.
A foul by Jimmy Alapag sent Lin Chi Chieh to the line and he made one to tie the s core once again at 75-75 with 2:52 to play. Douthit scored inside for a 77-75 Gilas Pilipinas lead but a huge three point shot by big man Tseng Wen Ting enabled Chinese-Taipei to go ahead 78-77 before another triple gave Chinese-Taipei an 81-77 lead with Reyes suing for time with 1:27 left.
Two free throws on a tacky foul called on Gabe Norwood eased Chinese-Taipei in front by four 83-79 with Reyes again forced to call a timeout.
An Alapag foul on Lin Chih Chieh who missed the first but made the second sealed the Filipinos doom 84-79 with 20.2 seconds left to play and when the Philippines failed to score on the next play, Chinese-Taipei ran out the clock to the disappointment of sea of red which often erupted in wave after wave at the height of the Philippines blistering third quarter run which set the stage for what looked like a comfortable victory but one that was not to be.
Chinese Taipei?s 17-4 fourth quarter run with our best men on the bench saw Gilas squander the momentum it had built eventually losing the fourth quarter by a wide 29-11 margin.
Coach Chot Reyes quickly assumed the blame for the Philippines loss. He candidly admitted ?I should?ve done a better job rotating the players and pacing the players.?
He claimed the task of catching up after the torrid start by the Chinese who raced to a 30-19 lead at the end of the first quarter took a physical toll on the Filipinos as Reyes said ?We spent a lot of energy in our chase. And we didn?t have anything left in the end.?
Reyes apologized to the overseas workers in Taiwan who were facing abuse with latest reports indicating that 4,000 contracts won?t be renewed, for the heartbreaking loss.
The failure of Jeff Chan who torched Jordan with 17 points on 5 of 7 triples on Friday to score in almost 15 minutes of action along with Gary David who went 0 for 3 in just over six minutes of action and LA Tenorio who hardly touched the ball while on the court for just over two minutes also hurt the nationals cause.
Since Sunday was a rest day Chan expects the team to ?use use it as a time to think and move forward from this loss.?
The key to Chinese-Taipei?s victory was their excellent shooting. They converted 30 out of 56 field goal attempts for a high 54 percent while the Philippines could only make 28 out of 74 for 38 percent. But where they killed Gilas Pilipinas was from beyond the arc where they made 15 of 30 attempts for an amazing 50 percent while the Philippines converted 10 out of 28 for a 36 percent tally.
The Philippines out-rebounded Chinese-Taipei 39-39 with Douthit pulling down 12 boards and point guard Jayson Castro Williams 8.
Chinese-Taipei also had 23 assists compared to the 12 of the Philippines and although Gilas Pilipinas committed only 6 turnovers to the 16 of Chinese-Taipei they failed to capitalize on this with Taiwan matching the Philippines 11 points off turnovers.
Team captain Jimmy Alapag who had 9 points and 4 assists admitted that the loss was tough ?especially with the crowd support we had tonight. We should have come up with a win, but anytime a team shoots 15 of 30 three-point shots, it?s tough to beat a team that shoots that well.?
Dazzling point guard Jayson Castro Williams who finished with 11 points and 4 assists to go with 8 rebounds correctly pointed out that when the Philippines was up by 13 points going into the fourth quarter they felt that ?we had won which is a bad habit of ours. When we are up by 10 points we tend to relax. Coach is right, we cannot celebrate.?
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ronnie Nathanielsz.
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