BATANG GILAS WINDS UP ITS UNDER 17 WORLD CUP STINT AGAINST DEFENDING CHAMPIONS USA
By Ronnie Nathanielsz
PhilBoxing.com
Sun, 10 Aug 2014
The gallant Batang Pilipinas team to the Under 17 World Cup Championships in Dubai which lost its opening two games to the much taller squads of Angola and Greece whose big men were deadly shooters from the outside, face two-time defending champions United States in their final group match on Monday and are likely to be over-run by the Americans.
The talented US team anchored by center Diamond Stone who were given a scare by Greece in their opening game before pulling off a 83-73 win regrouped to rout eleven time African champions Angola by a whopping 43 points, 99-56.
The Philippines had earlier lost to Angola 82-72 in the opening game of both newcomers to the world championships.
While the Filipino boys cheered on by a large group of overseas workers in Dubai played their hearts out against the much taller Angolans whose almost flawless outside shooting more than compensated for their horrible percentage from the free throw line, started off well but soon fell prey to the dominant 6?8 centers and 6?6? star Joao Jungo who finished with 28 points and 11 rebounds.
Batang Gilas were down 13 points in the third quarter but kept clawing back to cut the deficit to seven in the fourth but every time the Filipinos made a big basket, the Angolans responded with one of their own.
The star of Batang Gilas was Jolo Mendoza who top scored with 16 points while Jolo Go with 13 and Diego Dario with 12 points added to the tally but fell short in the end.
Mendoza once again showed the way with 19 points behind the yeoman?s effort of skipper Mike Nieto who despite giving away 8 inches in height to his Greek opponents demonstrated his fighting heart and skill to score 11 points and pull down 13 rebounds.
Despite starting off with a 9-2 run to the delight of the Filipino fans before the Greeks pulled away in the second quarter behind a pair of triples from Antonis Pefanis and a three-point play from Pantelis Skordas to grab a 25-17 lead.
Back to back baskets by Nieto and Go brought the Philippines to within 7 points at 29-22 but Greece, one of the top teams in Europe unleashed a 12-2 run to streak ahead 41-24 before scoring the last five points of the first half to open up a 20 point lead at 46-26.
Greece started the third quarter with eight unanswered points but after Mendoza converted two free throws,Greece answered with a six point run to race to off to a 60-28 lead and although Go and Michael DeLa Cruz nailed two triples and Nieto worked inside with some nifty moves, Greece answered with three consecutive triples by Antonis Koniaris for an 80-50 lead and although the Filipinos trimmed it to 20 and outscored Greece 32-22 in the final quarter the lead was just too much to overcome.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ronnie Nathanielsz.
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