INQUIRER Sports

TIANJIN, China ? It was a chance at some sort of redemption gone to waste.

Drained emotionally, Powerade-Pilipinas went down in shambles against Qatar Saturday afternoon, 83-65, and plummeted further down the standings in the Fiba Asia qualifying tournament here.

The Nationals trailed early at the Tianjin gymnasium against the bigger, more athletic Qataris and were never in it as they went down to their ugliest loss in this 16-nation event with seventh place now the highest achievable finish left.

That is, if the Filipinos still have some mental fortitude left to grind it out one last time.

?Undoubtedly, this is our worst game,? rued Philippine coach Yeng Guiao after finally allowing Filipino reporters inside his locker room more than an hour after the game. ?We did not play with any spirit out there.

?The defense we showed was just awful,? he continued. ?We did not resist the Qatar offensive onslaught all game. I always measure our games here in the way we play defense.

?Our games against Iran and Korea were the best [we played], even though we lost those games.?

After missing out on a top three finish with an 81-70 loss to Jordan Friday, the Philippines still had a slim chance of going to the world championship in Turkey by finishing at least fifth since a separate qualifier is set later this year among the fourth and fifth placers in five Fiba qualifiers all over the globe.

Instead, the Filipinos have one game left in their schedule, against the loser of the Chinese-Taipei?Korea match, which was being played in a late night schedule Saturday.

That match, which will be for seventh place, will be held at 2 p.m. Sunday.

Feel bad

?I hope this game really made them [Filipinos] feel bad,? Guiao remarked. ?We have one more game to save our pride.?

Team Philippines was only able to score two points in the first five minutes, trailed by seven at the end of the first, by 17 at the half and was buried into a 26-point hole before the start of the fourth period.

Only starting forward Kerby Raymundo was able to finish in twin digits with 12, with all the others held to harmless numbers. Willie Miller, one of the most consistent scorers for the Philippine team here, did not play because of a groin injury.

The 6-foot dynamo will also be out for the Philippines? final game.

Ali Saad Abdulraham, a Canadian-educated point guard, paced Qatar with 23 points, 16 of them coming in the first half. Elsayad Mustafa, a center, had 13 points and 12 rebounds.

Meanwhile, defending champion Iran nailed the first berth to Istanbul after forward Mohammad Bahrami, who tormented the Filipinos for 25 points last week, scored on a running, double-pumping jumper with 12 seconds left to key a 77-75 victory over Jordan.

Naturalized Jordan guard Rasheim Wright, who had 21 points against the Philippines, had a chance to forge overtime but missed a running jumper of his own as time expired.

Mighty China and Lebanon were disputing the second World berth at presstime, with the loser to tangle with Jordan in the battle for third place also Sunday for the last Istanbul slot.

If the Filipinos lose against either the Taiwanese or the Koreans on Sunday, they would finish eighth, still better than the ninth place finish achieved by a different PBA-backed team that campaigned in the Olympic qualifier in Japan two years ago.

Other games

But it will fall one rung short of the seventh-place finish that an all-amateur team in 1991 achieved in the Asian Basketball Confederation (the forerunner of the Fiba-Asia) tournament held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

In the classification round, Kazakhstan rallied from a 10-point third quarter deficit to edge Japan, 77-73, and claim ninth place.

Earlier, Kuwait came back from eight points down in the fourth quarter to beat United Arab Emirates, 65-61, for 11th place.

The scores:
QATAR 83?Ali SA 23, Elsayad 13, Abdulla 11, Mohammed 9, Saeed 9, Salem 9, Abdulla MS 3, Daoud 2, Ali 3, Ismail 1, Abdi 0, Musa 0.
POWERADE-PILIPINAS 65?Raymundo 12, Dillinger 9, Baguio 8, Norwood 7, Helterbrand 7, Santos 7, Yap 6, Pennisi 5, Taulava 2, Aguilar 2, Thoss 0.
Quarters: 23-16; 49-32; 66-40; 83-65