INQUIRER Sports

SHOWING ITS READINESS for the tougher grind ahead, the Nokia Pilipinas Under-16 National Team ruled the 2nd Nokia Pilipinas Youth Invitational Basketball with a big 77-57 victory over Iran at the University of San Carlos Gym in Cebu City on Sunday night.

The Filipinos scored a four-game sweep of the tournament, which is being used to gauge their readiness for the 1st Fiba Asia Under-16 Championship starting Nov. 19 in Johor Bahru, Malaysia.

?This win gives us a morale boost heading into the Fiba Asia tournament,? said coach Eric Altamirano. ?This is a big win and we will be giving our best shot there.?

The Filipinos overpowered Japan, 77-59, before dumping Chinese-Taipei, 87-55, Friday. But they needed a strong second-half push to rally from 16 points down and beat the Iranians, 89-83, in their last match in the elimination round.

Paolo Romero and Kevin Ferrer struck in a 7-1 run after Iran threatened, 50-60. That burst all but wrapped up the victory for the Filipinos, who were led by Kiefer Ravena with 15 points and five assists.

But the game was marred by the ejection of Jeron Alvin Teng and Iran?s Mohammad Ojaghi, who were involved in a scuffle with only 2.4 seconds left.

Ravena?s all-around performance earned for him the Most Valuable Player award. He headed the mythical team that also included teammate Cris Michael Tolomia, Ryo Tawatari of Japan, Yang Hsing-chih of Chinese Taipei and Soheil Yousefi of Iran.

Chinese-Taipei won the battle for third place over Japan, 93-79.

The scores:
First Game
CHINESE-TAIPEI 93?Wang 19, Yang 13, K. Chen 13, Chung 12, Y. Chen 10, Y. Lin 8, Kao 7, Fan 6, Wu 3, J. Lin 2.

JAPAN 79?Tawatari 24, Uehara 18, Aratani 11, Fujii 9, Hareyama 6, Komatsu 5, Tanaka 4, Hashimoto 2.
Quarters: 24-26, 42-42, 55-62, 93-79

Second Game
NOKIA-PILIPINAS 77?Ravena 15, Pessumal 15, Romero 11, Alolino 8, Teng 8, Javillonar 5, Tolomia 5, Ferrer 4, Pate 2, Labing Isa 2, Bantayan 2.

IRAN 57?Ojaghi 17, Yousefi 9, Khademnamdari 8, Zangeneh 7, Mashayekhi 6, Sedighi 5, Mir Fattahi 5.
Quarters: 23-9, 41-21, 54-41, 77-57