GILAS UNDER 18 TEAM ROUTS JORDAN BY 25 POINTS, GIVES FILIPINOS SOMETHING TO CHEER ABOUT
By Ronnie Nathanielsz
PhilBoxing.com
Thu, 21 Aug 2014
The Gilas Pilipinas under 18 Philippine national team routed Jordan by 25 points, 85 ? 60 in their opening game of the FIBA world championships, giving Filipino fns something to cheer about after the string of defeats suffered by the World Cup bound men?s team and the 15th place finish of the Batang Gilas under 17 squad out of the 16 teams in the competition.
Regrettably for Pinoy basketball fans, TV5 which covered all the other games at considerable cost decided not to telecast the games of the Under 18 team much to the chagrin of diehard Gilas supporters.
After falling behind early in the first quarter before a large crowd of Filipinos at the Al Gharafa Stadium in Doha, Qatar who had taken leave to watch the game, the Under 18 squad clawed back from a 13-8 deficit following back-to-back baskets by Jordan to grab the lead at 13-12 behind a nifty steal by 6?5? center Leonard Santillan and a basket by 6?0? shooting guard Manuel Mosqueda III.
Four straight points by 5?7? point guard Josh guard Joshua Caracut pushed the Philippines ahead 25-18 midway in the second quarter with the Under 18 squad going into the locker room comfortably ahead 44-26 at the half.
Caracut and his 5?9? San Beda teammate Ranbill Angelo Tangco were joined by Under 17 shooting star, 6?1? Paul Desiderio in a 30 point splurge that eased the pressure on the Philippines.
The young Filipinos waxed hot at the start of the 3rd quarter with triples by 6?2? Wilson Yu off a Caracut pass and Mosqueda plus a basket from Tongco to increase the lead to 66-38.
The son of former PBA import and current Meralco coach Norman Black pulled off a steal, was fouled and split his charities for a 67-38 spread and when Caracut beat the clock with a basket to end the third quarter, the Filipinos were ahead 72-39 which was quickly increased by a Yu basket to 74-39.
A triple by Alabed Alat of Jordan made it 74-45 with around 9 minutes to play but Santillan rammed inside to score and snuff out any hopes entertained by Jordan for a 76-47 count.
Two straight baskets by Haddad made it 77-56 with time running out on Jordan, the Gilas Under 18 team eventually ran out winners by 25 points, 85-60.
Tongco led the scoring with 24 big points on a 11 of 17 shooting clip while Caracut added 11 points. 6 assists a 3 steals while Desiderio and Mosqueda contributed 10 points apiece.
Black and World Under 18 slam dunk king Kobe Paras, the 6?6? power forward from Cathedral High School in Los Angeles appeared to be holding back a bit so as not to give scouts of the other teams an idea of what they are capable but both finished with 6 points and 9 rebounds each.
The Philippines faces arch rivals South Korea on Thursday in a game where the result won?t have a material impact since both the Philippines and Korea along with Jordan have already qualified for the next round.The Koreans had earlier whipped Jordan 95-38 and as Fiba reported they were well served by one of their most experienced players in Byeon Junhyeong who came up with a 15-point game in a 12-man rotation that saw every player on court for almost 10 piece each.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ronnie Nathanielsz.
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