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GILAS PILIPINAS ONE WIN AWAY FROM A WORLD CUP BERTH By Ronnie Nathanielsz PhilBoxing.com Sat, 10 Aug 2013  The Gilas Pilipinas national team played near flawless basketball for the full 40 minutes to demolish a big, strong Kazakhstan squad 88-58 before a raucous sell-out crowd at the Mall of Asia Arena and moved one win away from a coveted berth in the World Cup in Spain next year. A victory over an agile, talented South Korean team in the second semi final game on Saturday after awesome Iran face gutsy Chinese-Taipei in the first semi final matchup will assure the Philippines of a trip top Spain. Even if we falter, the Philippines will have one last chance in the third place battle which most likely will be a rematch with Chinese-Taipei who are not expected to beat the awesome Iranian squad in the first semi final even though Chinese-Taipei shocked a lethargic China team 96-78 for the first time in their sometimes emotional rivalry. Gilas Pilipinas jumped off to an early 10-3 lead behind triples by LA Tenorio and five straight points by left Jeff Chan including a triple sparked by a block on Kazakhstan?s naturalized point guard Jerri Johnson, forcing coach Matteo Boniciolli to call an early timeout with 7:26 to go in the first quarter. A sizzling 15-4 run anchored on a stifling defense and offensive quickness saw March Pingris jam on a breakaway followed by another basket by Gabe Norwood on the break, a basket by Chan, a block by Marcus Douthit and Gary David burying two triples seconds after he came in sandwiched by a triple from Ranidel De Ocampo which opened up a 32-15 Philippine lead at the end of the first quarter. When Dmitriy Klimov nailed a three, Jayson Castro Williams promptly answered with a triple of his own before two more baskets by David and one by Douthit eased the pressure before the Kazakhs replied with a 10-2 run fueled by a Klimov triple to cut the Gilas lead to 10, 41-31 with 4:55 to go before the end of the first half. A foul on Douthit by big Leonid Bondarovich saw the naturalized player convert one of two free throws before lanky Japeth Aguilar drove down the baseline and was fouled by Ponomarev as he was flying high for a dunk. Aguilar coolly sank both free throws before Douthit slammed one home on a nifty pass from Aguilar and Norwood hit a three point shot.Aguilar then converted two more free throws to go to the locker room with Gilas Pilipinas ahead 51-40 at the half. Norwood opened the third quarter with a huge three before Jayson Castro Williams cut inside and scored and Larry Fonacier who replaced Norwood faked his man before swishing the hoop with a three to give the Philippines a 59-47 lead with 2:56 to play in the third. Johnson converted two free throws on De Ocampo?s 3rd foul before Jayson Castro Williams stole and scored on a breakaway and Aguilar made a basket, played some good defense that enabled David to score on the break before Japeth made one of two free throws and Castro also converted a freebie to end the third quarter 67-51. Jayson Castro Williams opened the final quarter with a three, David buried a triple and followed it up with two free throws before an unsportsmanlike foul was slapped on Klimov which also gave Gilas Pilipinas ball possession. Another unsportsmanlike foul on Klimov who swung his elbows after getting a rebound saw him thrown out of the game, allowing David the chance to extend the lead to 77-51 on two free throws before Aguilar sank a fade-away jumper to open up an 18 point Gilas Pilipinas lead 79-51. An offensive foul and a traveling violation on Kazakhstan and a big block by Aguilar was followed by a De Ocampo three point shot after Bondarovich scored and Ponomorev scored on a put back. Another basket by Ponomorev made it 82-57 before the high flying Aguilar went down the baseline and rattled the rim with a thunderous jam enabling Reyes to give Junmar Fajardo some playing time in place of Aguilar. Pingris got into the act with a basket followed by Jimmy Alapag to push the sc ore to 88-57. Three consecutive offensive fouls by Fajardo and one of two free throws by Vitaliy Lapchenko made the final count 88-58 in favor of the host team. David who had his best game of the tournament with 22 points including 4 of 6 three pointers said ?When the Philippines played the tune up game against Kazakhstan that?s when my poor game started and I am happy to be able to come back and finish it today. I wish to thank my coach and my teammates for not giving up on me. What I would do is go home, visualize like I do during PBA games and that?s what I tried to do today and hopefully we can continue this in the semi finals.? Coach Reyes said ?we were able to execute our defensive game-plan very well. In the end the crowd helped this team along and allowed us to play with our energy. I told my team on the eve of the game the one thing we had to bring to this game was a lot of energy because the team we are playing is bigger than us, stronger than us and more physical. So we?ve got to make sure we come in with a lot of exuberance and energy.? Reyes emphasized, ?we haven?t won anything yet, we haven?t done anything yet. All we?ve done is give ourselves a good position. Hopefully we can find a way to play better even tomorrow.? Talking about the breakout game of David, Reyes said ?you all know the hardships that this team went through, we wanted more time we didn?t get enough time, we wanted certain players but we didn?t get some players who weren?t allowed or some players who didn?t want to come. Gary David from day one was there. Even in the Jones Cup last year, the Champions Cup last year even with the Cadets at the start of this year Gary has not taken a day off. Same goes with the Talk N? Text players Jimmy, Ranidel. He was there from day one I felt personally that a shooters job is to shoot but sometime they would miss. The worst thing I could have done was to limit him and stop giving him his minutes as a coach. I spoke to him briefly at practice and I told him he?s still going to get his time. That?s what he does, he puts the ball in the hole that?s why he is in this team. After making himself available and giving up all his rest and vacation and family time. I couldn?t abandon him.? Asked about the performance of Aguilar which enabled Douthit who has a sore calf to get some extra rest, Reyes said ?that?s why when he was in the States I went and told him to come back home because from Day One, I really had very high hopes and tremendous belief in Japeth?s potential.? Asked what this run has meant to him he said, ?the main point of our discussions is that it?s a privilege. There?s the weight of the world. Instead of the pressure we try to inject a sense of appreciation for this. When you play Gilas Pilipinas you are not playing against a team you are playing against a country.? Former national coach Rajko Toroman who led Iran to their first FIBA Asia Championships told the Manila Standard Gilas was ?looking very good tonight. They didn?t give Kazakhstan a chance. They really dominated the game from the beginning to the end and it gave coach used 12 players so he could rest some of the key players for the game against South Korea.? He said ?if they can beat Korea they will be in the World Championships and I think it will be the most important basketball game for the Filipinos. I think this country and these people who love basketball deserve some pride from Asia and from all the world.? Toroman said ?today?s game is to put Filipino basketball on the world map and I think that with this crowd, with the way they are playing that is possible.? He noted that ?they were waiting for Gary David a long time. Today he exploded which is what you can expect from a great scorer. He?s been one of the best scorers here over the last four years and today you?ll never know - it could be Chan or Fonacier or Alapag.? Toroman said he didn?t see any real prospect in the Chinese team that could replace some of their best players over the last ten years ?but in the Philippines you have 40 guys who can play for the national team with Douthit. There are a lot of players on the same level. That is why the PBA is a high quality league. If you take the first five out of the Iran team its an average team but take our 11 players and put another eleven players in this national team and it will be the same competitive team as Gilas. What the Philippines has, nobody has and that?s why they must make the world championship.? He said in the Philippines ?the talent is coming like mushrooms after the rain. From the ground everywhere. That?s the luxury. The only thing the Philippines needs is a good result in this tournament to put them on the world map.? Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ronnie Nathanielsz.  |
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