FIBA WORLD CUP 2014 ELIMINATION FACTS AND FIGURES
By Maloney L. Samaco
PhilBoxing.com
Sat, 06 Sep 2014
It took more than 40 years for the Philippines to win a game at the World Basketball Championships now known as FIBA World Cup. Gilas finally defeated Senegal 81-79 in overtime for their first and only win in Group B in Sevilla, Spain. It was also their first victory at the World Basketball Championships since beating Australia 101-100 on July 8, 1974 and edging Central African Republic 87-86 on July 12, 1974 but both wins were already in the classification round in San Juan , Puerto Rico.
Team Gilas Pilipinas, FIBA ranked No. 34, poured their hearts out almost winning against the world's best teams, only to falter in the endgame. They had heartbreaking losses to No.16 Croatia 81-78 in overtime, to No. 3 Argentina 85-81, to No. 17 Puerto Rico 77-73. Only No. 5 Greece had a clear advantage over Gilas 82-70.
Here are the final standings after the group eliminations. The top four teams in each group advanced to the Round of 16.
Group A - Spain 5-0, Brazil 4-1, France 3-2, Serbia 2-3, Iran 1-4, Egypt 0-5.
Group B - Greece 5-0, Croatia 3-2, Argentina 3-2, Senegal 2-3, Puerto Rico 1-4, Philippines 1-4.
Group C - United States 5-0, Turkey 3-2, Dominican Rep. 2-3, New Zealand 2-3, Ukraine 2-3, Finland 1-4.
Group D - Lithuania 4-1, Slovenia 4-1, Australia 3-2, Mexico 2-3, Angola 2-3, South Korea 0-5.
Gorgui Dieng of Senegal emerged as the most efficient player of the group elimination round with a rating of 22.8. He was closely followed by our very own Andray Blatche of the Philippines who was tied by Luis Scola of Argentina with 22.4.
Top point maker of the group phase was Jose Barea of Puerto Rico with 22.0 points average. He was followed by Scola 21.6 and Blatche and Pau Gasol of Spain tied with 21.2.
Blatche had the most rebounds with 13.8 average per game, followed by Dieng tied with Hamed Haddadi of Iran with 11.4.
The most number of assists in the eliminations was dished out by Peteri Koponen of Finland and Ricky Rubio of Spain with 5.8 per game. Xane Dalmeida of Senegal followed with 5.6.
The shortest basketball player of the FIBA World Cup 2014 is Gilas point guard Lewis Alfred "LA" Tenorio at 1.70m (5?6?). There are 3 more participants below 1.80m (5?9?): one of them is Iranian point guard Sajjad Mashayekhi (1.78 m ? 5?8?) and the other two played in the Gilas team Jimmy Alapag and Jayson William Castro.
In fact the Philippines team has the lowest height average, 1.91m (6?3?) and Gilas was grouped with three of the tallest teams in Greece (average 6?8″ 204 cm), Croatia (average 6?8″ 2.03 m), and Senegal (average 6?8″ 2.02 m). Argentina (average 6?6″ 1.98 m) and Puerto Rico (average 6?6″ 1.99 m), were also among the tallest teams. In spite of this, we gave them the biggest scare of the tournament.
The closest nation in terms of height is our fellow Asian South Korea with an average height of 6?4″ (1.94 m).
The tallest player in the 2014 FIBA World Cup is Iranian center Hamed Haddadi standing at 2.18m (7?2?).
Iran and South Korea also failed to advance to the next phase. Iran salvaged a single win against Egypt 88-73 in Group A while South Korea was winless in Group D.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Maloney L. Samaco.
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