GILAS PILIPINAS MINUS BLATCHE AND PAUL LEE ARE CRUSHED BY UKRAINE
By Ronnie Nathanielsz
PhilBoxing.com
Mon, 18 Aug 2014
Without naturalized NBA player Andray Blatche and gutsy backcourt star Paul Lee, the Philippine national team Gilas Pilipinas was crushed by towering, sweet-shooting Ukraine 114-64 in their final game of a four nation pocket tournament in Antibes, France.
In an overseas telephone conversation with the Manila Standard/Viva Sports, coach Chot Reyes said he ?didn?t want to risk playing Blatche (sprained ankle) and Paul Lee (sore hip)? which clearly left a gaping hole both offensively and defensively.
Reyes said ?we needed to be spanked so we can understand how top European teams play? as Gilas Pilipinas continues its series of tune-up games in Spain, leading to the FIBA World Cup which opens on August 28. He added, ?we now know what we have to work on.?
The coach who could be heard shouting at the players in Pilipino during the previous game against a big Australian side, asking them whether they were scared, was obviously unhappy about the defense of the nationals, telling us ?we struggled defensively.?
Reyes said his ?real concern are the bigs, Junmar Fajardo and Japeth Aguilar who have to fight. They cant allow themselves to be pushed around? noting that there are times he is forced to rest Blatche and they need to fill the void for a few minutes.
The coach couldn?t hide his disappointment over the performance of Fajardo and Aguilar and hinted he may ?take a look at Beau Belga who will fight and has a three-point shot? to fill one of the slots in the twelve-man World Cup line-up.
Belga has been in the Gilas Pilipinas pool since the preparations for the FIBA Asia Championships at the Mall of Asia Arena in August last year.
At the same time Reyes noted that every time the Philippine team plays back-to-back games it falters in the third game, recalling how they almost lost to Chinese-Taipei in the third game of the FIBA Asia Championships.
He said it ?takes a real effort to run and jump with these big teams? such as Australia in a game where Gilas Pilipinas held their own until midway in the third quarter before they faded and suffered a 97-75 defeat following an impressive showing against France in their opening game which the Filipinos lost 75-68.
The Australians had earlier beaten Ukraine 74-65 while Ukraine in turn upset France 63-56.
Shooting star Jeff Chan, Ranidel de Ocampo and point guard LA Tenorio connected on early three-point shots to hold Ukraine to a tie at 16-all before the Europeans scored five straight points to move ahead 21-16 at the end of the first quarter.
After Jayson Castro?s triple closed the gap to two points at 21-19 the game soon turned into a rout as Ukraine behind a sizzling 23-6 run followed by another 15-3 run scored 40 points in the second quarter to the Philippines 19 to give them a 61-35 lead at the half before zooming to a 37 point lead, 83-46 well into the third quarter.
Ukraine?s big men continued to muscle their way inside and to hit big baskets from beyond the arc to race to a 50 point lead 114-64 with another big run to end the game.
Reyes took a few positives despite the rout with Jeff Chan who finished with 10 points and Ranidel de Ocampo leading Gilas Pilipinas with 11 points shooting consistently so far in the series along with point guard Jayson Castro who finished with 9 points including a triple.
Marcus Douthit who stepped in as Blatche?s replacement grabbed 8 rebounds but scored only 5 points on 1 of 7 shooting from the field.
The much bigger Ukraine squad dominated the rebounding with a 42-25 margin and converted on an amazing 19 of 33 attempts from beyond the arc and finished with an unbelievable 58 percent from the field as against the disappointing 33 percent by the Philippines.
Ukraine also dished off more assists 27 to 14 and pulled off 11 steaks compared to the 6 of Gilas Pilipinas.
Ukraine was led by 6?7? guard Oleksandr Lypovyy with 16 points and 8 rebounds, 6?4 shooting guard Olexandr Mishula added 14, 6?11? center Igor Zaytsev and 6?6 shooting guard Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk contributed 12 points apiece.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ronnie Nathanielsz.
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