BATANG GILAS GIVES ARGENTINA A SCARE
By Ronnie Nathanielsz
PhilBoxing.com
Fri, 15 Aug 2014
The Batang Gilas Philippine team gave Argentina a scare in the classification round of the FIBA World Under 17 Championships in Dubai before losing by 13 points, 84-71.
The boys faced Egypt in a game scheduled to be telecast at 8:30 p.m. Friday by TV5.
Despite the absence of shooting star Jolo Mendoza who suffered a hamstring injury in the game against the USA, the Filipinos never gave up and launched a late rally that brought them to within seven points at 78-71 behind triples by Mike Nieto and Paul Desiderio before Argentine scored the last six points in the final minute of the game to end another gallant stand by Batang Gilas.
Although it was the team?s fifth straight loss, they gave the fancied Argentines a scare when Batang Gilas buried seven three-pointers in the final quarter.
Argentina opened up a big 22 point lead in the fourth quarter but the scrappy Filipinos never gave up and showed the fighting heart that has become synonymous with the Gilas teams to trim the lead to seven points.
Jolo Go stepped up big-time in the absence of the team?s leading scorer Mendoza to finish with 27 points anchored on six triples. Another solid outside shooter Michael Dela Cruz who also plays rugged defense added 14 points while Mike Nieto, the biggest guy on the smallest team in the championships came through with 11 points and 8 rebounds while Paul Desiderio contributed 10 points.
The outside shooting of Batang Gilas brought them back into the contest time and again with their impressive conversion of 13 out of 30 three-point attempts for a high 43.4 percent being the key.
After Dela Cruz tallied five straight points to push Batang Gilas in front 11-8, Argentina rattled off a 14-3 run to grab a 22-14 lead at the end of the first quarter and went into the locker rooms at the half nursing a 35-27 lead.
With Go finding the range Batang Gilas closed in at 41-36 but Argentina found its touch from the outside to mount a sizzling 19-4 run to open up their biggest lead of 20 points , 60-40. But the boys led by Go who nailed three of his game high six triples cut the lead to 16 at 62-46.
Argentina raced to a 22 point lead scoring the first six points of the final quarter before Go and DelaCruz clawed back with three pointers of their own until Jeffrey Merchant took charge to score six unanswered points to give Argentina a 74-52 lead.
But again Batang Gilas fought back with an amazing 12-0 run with Go, Desiderio and Dela Cruz all burying triples and Go converting three free throws when he was fouled while taking another triple and when Desiderio and Mike Nieto converted on two more three-point attempts to close to within 7 at 78-71 a nervous Argentina finished it off by scoring the last six points against a gallant but tired Filipino squad.
The scores:
Argentina (84) ? Mas Delfino 20, Carvalho 16, Merchant 14, Delfino 10, Zurbriggen 7, Fernandez 6, Aliende 3, Galardo 2, Fjellerup 2, Borsanti 2, Riego 2, Onetto 0.
Batang Gilas (71) ? Go 27, Dela Cruz 14, Mi. Nieto 11, Desiderio 10, Ma. Nieto 7, Navarro 2, Escoto 0, Dario 0, Padilla 0, Abadeza 0.
Quarterscores: 22-14, 35-27, 62-46, 84-71.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ronnie Nathanielsz.
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