GILAS PILIPINAS BATTLES TOUGH QATAR AFTER ROUTING JAPAN
By Ronnie Nathanielsz
PhilBoxing.com
Tue, 06 Aug 2013
Their spirits unbroken, their heads unbowed, the gallant Gilas Pilipinas national basketball team quickly proved they had gotten over the heartbreaking 83-79 loss to Chinese-Taipei on Saturday as they led at the end of the first quarter for the first time in four games and never looked back in a 90-71 rout of Japan at the Mall of Asia Arena last night to set up a crucial battle with the undefeated Qatar squad.
The Philippines goes into the Qatar game with its confidence boosted by a classic win that was, in the words of former coach Rajko Toroman, ?their best game so far and as I said before they are improving with every game.?
Toroman said ?today it was a really good game. Defensively they were very fast and really played good defense and they had good offense and defense and a good inside-outside game. In the first quarter Gilas didn?t have one attempt from three points which is unusual for them. Then Marcus (Douthit) started to play well and in the second quarter Ranidel (de Ocampo) started to shoot the ball.?
Looking ahead to the Qatar game the coach who led Iran to its first FIBA Asia Championship and the Philippines to a fourth place finish in Tokushima four years ago said ?it will be different but also you have to know it's an old team with a lot of old players and they had a tough game (against Hong Kong) on Monday morning and I don?t know how they will recover because age is their biggest problem.?
Toroman emphasized that if Gilas Pilipinas plays ?as enthusiastically as they played against Japan I expect them to win the game.?
He said Jarvis Hayes is experienced played a lot of years in the NBA. He?s a spot up shooter but we have enough quality defenders like Gabe Norwood to take care of him. Besides Qatar doesn?t have too many creative players who can create something for Hayes. The option for Qatar is to create options for other players because they have size they are very athletic very experienced but I don?t think they can play two, three games at the same level. That?s why I expect Gilas to win.?
Gilas Pilipinas head coach Chot Reyes in a post-game interview said ?against Qatar we have to be able to switch our thinking back to a different style altogether. They are big, bruising and like to pound the ball inside? and with an excellent naturalized player in Hayes ?it's really going to be a tough game.?
However, Reyes expressed the hope that Gilas Pilipinas ?can generate a lot of confidence from the victory? against Japan.
After racing to a 6-0 start, the Filipinos behind naturalized player Douthit?s 9 points took the first quarter 17-14 before three deadly triples by de Ocampo sandwiched by a fleet-footed Aquilar?s drive to the basket and a thundering slam dunk pushed Gilas ahead 23-19 before they opened up a ten point lead at the half 46-36.
Back-to-back triples by sweet-shooting lefty Jeff Chan at the start of the third quarter increased the Philippine lead to 16, 52-36 before a Norwood basket opened up a 63-43 lead with 4:51 left in the third and when LA Tenorio buried a three and Pingris stole and scored on the break the Philippines went ahead by 25 big points 68-43 with 3:37 to go in the third.
Aguilar slammed one home off a Ranidel drop pass and Tenorio sank two free throws to end the third quarter 75-51.
Japan went on a mini 9-4 run to start the fourth quarter built around back-to-back baskets by Kosuke Takeuchi and a triple by Keijuro Matsui but skipper Jimmy Alapag soon doused any hopes the Japanese had of making a game of it with a patented shot beyond the arc and when Gary David scored on a tap-in the fans exploded with cheers, before a heave by Chan rattled around the rim and dropped in for a three that gave Gilas Pilipinas an 87-65 count.
With Tenorio and Alapag trying desperately to get David into scoring mode helping out the popular PBA player while his wife and daughter joined the thousands dressed in white at the venue encouraged him, David buried a triple to a rousing cheer from the fans for a 90-67 count with 56.6 seconds to play.
A block by Aguilar and a conversion in the final play by Kosuke Kanamaru ended the game in favor of the Philippines 90-71 as David rushed to his wife and daughter and hugged them both to the delight of the fans who had wanted him to do well.
Douthit with 19 points and 10 defensive rebounds bannered the Philippines while Chan had 16 points behind 4 out of 5 three point shots while De Ocampo with 9 points on three triples out of four and Tenorio also with 9 points including one triple while Alapag had 6 points with two triples.
Aguilar, Norwood and Jayson Castro Williams had 7 points apiece and David 5 with Reyes praising Aguilar who he said ?gave us a great lift off the bench? and Pingris who he credited for ?giving us an incredible defensive effort from the start.?
JR Sakuragi led Japan with 19 points and 13 rebounds while Kosuke Takeuchi had 17 points and 9 rebounds and center Makoto Hiejima finished with 9 points and 5 boards.
Gilas Pilipinas converted 12 of 20 three point attempts for a sizzling 60 percent while Japan converted 6 of 18 for 33 percent but they outrebounded Gilas 42-29 but were way behind in assists 12 to 24.
With their pressure defense the Filipinos pulled off 11 steals while Japan had only 2 with Gilas scoring 22 points on turnovers to the 4 by Japan.
Hundreds of fans waited patiently outside the barricaded players exit to give each one a rousing cheer and the players obliged by moving along and exchanging high fives and waves with fans chanting David?s name in an emotional gesture of appreciation.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ronnie Nathanielsz.
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