BATANG GILAS IN ANOTHER PULSATING COMEBACK WIN OVER MALAYSIA
By Ronnie Nathanielsz
PhilBoxing.com
Mon, 25 Aug 2014
The Batang Gilas Philippine team scored another pulsating comeback win over a tough Malaysian squad to score a 72-69 victory to windup their second round assignments in Group E at the FIBA Asia Under 18 Championships at the Al-Gharafa stadium in Doha, Qatar.
Batang Gilas will next face arch rivals Chinese-Taipei in a tournament dominated by an awesome Chinese team who surged ahead in the early part of the 2nd quarter before running away with 81-54 victory and served notice a third straight championship is theirs for the taking.
After a rest day on Monday China will take on Kazkhstan in the quarter finals while Korea will go up against traditional rivals Japan and the Philippines will clash with arch rivals Chinese-Taipei.
Malaysia opened up a 19-12 lead at the end of the first quarter but the Filipinos chipped away at the lead to end the first half down by four, 33-29. The Malaysians went on a 9-4 run at the start of the third quarter to lead 42-33 before Batang Gilas with a flurry of baskets in a sizzling 12-0 charge, took a 45-42 lead with 2:01 remaining in the 3rd quarter.
The Philippines lost the lead with 20 seconds to go as Malaysia went ahead 51-48 before the quarter ended at 51-all behind the incredible shooting of Ranbill Tongco who scored the team?s last 12 points to ultimately finish with 22 points to go with 4 assists and 1 steal.
After Batang Gilas opened the scoring in the final quarter Malaysia answered with 5 straight points to regain the lead at 56-53 with 8:08 remaining.
It was a nip and tuck battle from then on with Malaysia staying ahead most of the way before Kobe Paras grabbed the lead again on a three-point play and a slam dunk of a steal to edge in front 62-61 with 4:04 remaining.
Malaysia regained the lead 63-62 but the Philippines produced a moment of brilliance as Tongo found Dave Yu who had sparkled in the comeback against Qatar for a huge triple.
Malaysia once again tied the game at 67-all with 0:39 seconds left to play before Yu, this time around found Tongco for another crucial basket to regain the lead for the Philippines 69-67 with :34 seconds remaining before San Beda guard Joshua Caracut buried a remarkable three-point shot with :22 seconds on the game clock to push the Philippines in front 72-69.
A questionable unsportsmanlike foul called on Mark Dyke could have nullified the amazing comeback but Joon Lock Wee muffed both free throws enabling the Filipinos to heave a sigh of relief and when he also missed two attempts to tie the count from beyond the arc, it was a done deal for Batang Gilas.
Tongco scored 22 points and added four assists to lead the Filipinos while Kobe Paras had 12 points, 6 rebounds, 3 steals and one assist.
Mark Dyke had a double-double scoring 10 points and pulling down 10 rebounds while Paul Desiderio who came off the bench finished with 7 points and 8 rebounds.
Kobe Paras? dad, former two-time PBA MVP and the only player in the league?s history to win ?Rookie of the Year? and MVP Honors in the same season told the Manila Standard/Viva Sports that Chinese-Taipei is very strong team and that ? we cannot win if we can?t make our free throws? which he emphasized to his son Kobe who converted 2 of 5 while Dyke made only 2 of 7 and Caracut 0 of 2.
Overall, Gilas Pilipinas converted 10 of 25 free throws for a 40 percent mark while Malaysia made 11 of 20 for 55 percent.
The Philippines had 82 attempts from the field and made 28 for 34 percent which was the same as Malaysia who converted 25 of 74 from the field.
The Malaysians won the battle off the boards 47-45.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ronnie Nathanielsz.
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