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GALLANT GILAS PILIPINAS GOLD MEDAL DREAM FAILS TO COME TRUE By Ronnie Nathanielsz PhilBoxing.com Mon, 12 Aug 2013  The gallant Gilas Pilipinas national basketball team's dream to win a gold medal at the 27th FIBA Asia Championships failed to come true, not for the want of a near heroic effort against overwhelming odds but because the injury to naturalized center Marcus Douthit allowed Iran?s 7 foot behemoth Hamed Haddadi to bully his way around in the paint and lead Iran to an 85-71 victory before over 20,000 spectators at the Mall of Asia Arena on Sunday. A throng of screaming Filipino fans who have supported the national team all the way and a 200 strong Iranian cheering squad livened up the proceedings watched by President Benigno Aquino III, vice president Jejomar Binay who came out to support the team twice before, boxing superstar congressman Manny Pacquiao and his charming wife, Sarangani vice governor Jinkee Pacquiao and the ?Living Legend? of Philippine basketball, former senator Robert Jaworski who anchored the Philippine team that won the ABC Championships and a place in the World Championships some 40 years ago. The Philippines gave Iran all it could handle in the first quarter before falling behind 15-17 and then when Iran, behind the dominating presence of Haddadi inside surged ahead 28-20, the Filipinos came roaring back with triples by LA Tenorio and Ranidel De Ocampo, one of two free throws by Jayson Castro Williams and a basket off a daredevil drive to make it 29-32 with 3:01 left in the second quarter. Pingris tried valiantly but couldn?t prevent Haddadi from scoring inside and drawing a foul which the big Iranian converted to ease in front 35-29. In the very next play Haddadi committed an offensive foul enabling De Ocampo to score off the turnover to make it 31-35. A traveling violation by Iran which was one of the few called by the referees and a huge three by Larry Fonacier enabled the Philippines to go into the locker room merely down by a point at the half, 34-35. Castro sank two free throws at the start of the third quarter to give Gilas Pilipinas a taste of the lead once again 36-35 with 9:40 to go in the third but Haddadi immediately erased the lead with a basket inside before Nikkhah Bahrami scored as Japeth Aguilar tried to vainly block his shot and gave him an extra free throw which he missed. With 8:22 to play in the third Nikkhah Bahrami was fouled by Marc Pingris and converted the two freebies to move ahead 41-36 before the Iranians capped a 10-1 run with one more basket to race to a 45-36 lead forcing coach Chot Reyes to call a timeout to try and stem the tide. Jayson Castro Williams again came to the rescue with a patented drive, was fouled by Mahdi Kamrani and coolly sank both free throws for a 38-45 count before skipper Jimmy Alapag buried a big three point shot following a ferocious defensive rebound by Pingris to come to within 4 at 41-45, time down to 6:17 in the third stanza. Oshin Sahakian eased Iran in front with two free throws to push the lead to 8, 49-41 before Alapag took the cue from Williams and scored inside for a 43-49 tally before two quick baskets by Iran opened up a ten point lead 53-43 with 4:42 remaining in the third. A reverse layup by Pingris was quickly compensated for by Haddadi who converted two free throws before a three point shot stroked by lefty Jeff Chan cut the Iran lead to 7 at 55-48 after another traveling c all was slapped on Iran. Two more free throws for Haddadi on Aguilar?s fourth foul made it 57-48 in favor of Iran but Alapag swished the hoops with another big three for a 51-57 tally before Junmar Fajardo committed an offensive foul once again sending Haddadi to the stripe where he made both free throws to give Iran a 57-51 lead. Alapag made two free throws on a foul by Hamed Afagh but a last second triple sent Iran into the final quarter nursing a 62-53 lead. A bad inbound pass to start the last quarter resulted in an Iranian basket 64-53 before Haddadi was called for his third foul on Pingris and Marc made one-of-two to bring Gilas to within ten at 54-64 time down to 8:24. Haddadi went to work inside while the Iranians tightened up defensively and despite a basket and a triple by Tenorio, Iran opened up a 13 point lead, 72-59 with 4:32 left in the game as the Gilas Pilipinas dream slowly slipped away. An unsportsmanlike foul called on De Ocampo who was earlier at the receiving end followed by an emphatic dunk by Haddadi was eased somewhat when De Ocampo made a three and was fouled by Haddadi who went to the showers with his fifth foul. Ranidel sank bonus shot to come to within 11 at 67-78 with time running out at 2:44 and when Mahdi Kamrany scored, the Iranians were beginning to celebrate. When Ranidel committed an offensive foul in desperation and Oshin Sahakian made no mistake with his free throws, Iran surged ahead 83-67. Gabe Norwood was fouled by Mahdi Kamrany and made both free throws, then Willians scored and Samad Nikkhah Bahrami sealed the gold medal with the final basket for an 85-71 score. Hadadi who was chosen as a member of the All Stars as well as the Most Valuable Player finished with 29 points, 16 rebounds and 2 blocked shots Samad Nikkhah Bahrami had 19 points and 7 assists, Mahdi Kamrany, 15 points,7 rebounds and 5 assists while Oshin Sahakian had 12 points and 12 rebounds which accentuated a solid, all-around team game by clearly the new powerhouse in Asia. Jayson Castro Williams who rightfully earned the point guard spot in the FIBA Asia All Stars played another great game to lead Gilas Pilipinas with 18 points and 3 assists, captain Jimmy Alapag contributed 13 points behind 3 of 6 triples and also had 3 assists while Ranidel De Ocampo had 9 points LA Tenorio 8 with 3 rebounds and 3 assists, Jeff Chan with 7 points and Marc Pingris with 3 points but 8 big rebounds. Iran, as expected in the absence of Douthit, outrebounded Gilas 51-34, had 34 to 22 points in the paint and 14 to 2 second chance points but Gilas Pilipinas had 11 fastbreak points to the 6 of Iran and the Filipinos bench outscored Iran by a whopping 46-6 spread. Former Gilas coach and the man who coached Iran to its first FIBA Championship Rajko Toroman said ?90 million Filipinos have to be proud. You, me everybody must be proud of the result. Our players, the coaching staff, did a great job. After a long time the Philippines is now on the basketball world map, that?s great.? Toroman said that ?this game was very difficult to play because after the game (against South Korea for a place in the finals) they put a lot of energy, emotionally, mentally. I think they gave everything they had inside of them to win against South Korea after a lot of years because we had to return something to Korea? our nemesis through recent years. He said ?it was difficult to play even with Marcus Douthit but without him it was an almost impossible mission.? Hadadi said ?the Philippines is the best team we played? even as he said the absence of Douthit obviously hurt the Philippines. Coach Mehmed Becirovic said ?with the fans behind the Gilas team they always found new energy, new energy to fight to the end? even as he congratulated the Gilas team for making the World Championships and giving Iran ?a good game in the finals.? Gilas Pilipinas point guard Jayson Castro Williams said ?we are still happy we achieved our objective to make the World Cup and we are happy we played tough teams and met Iran in the finals. It was a good experience. In the next Fiba Asia we?ll play for a win.? Coach Chot Reyes told a post-game media conference ?unfortunately it ended the way it did. If somebody had told me last month that on August 11 we would have a silver medal around our necks we would have been very, very happy, ecstatic in fact. We came and achieved what we set out to achieve. Obviously we would all have wanted to come out with a gold but in the end without Marcus it was just too difficult.? He said ?We held them for 20 minutes but in the end with their superior size, good players and great coaching it was just too much to ask of our players. I am very, very proud of our players. We fought them tooth and nail, we were right there. Junmar Fajardo and Japeth Aguilar showed what?s in store for them in the future at this level. If we had our big guy who knows, we could have given them a better fight. Iran is a great team, they have been together since 2006-2007 and it showed in the way they played.? Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ronnie Nathanielsz.  |
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