Koreans outlast erratic Smart Gilas Pilipinas five

HSINCHUANG, Taiwan—Korea made Smart Gilas Pilipinas pay for turnovers in the final two minutes, pulling off a 78-70 victory to remain unbeaten after five games in the William Jones Cup last night at the Hsinchuang Gymnasium.

Marcus Douthit passed off to the wrong man twice, Mac Baracael fumbled and Marcio Lassiter took a few extra steps after a steal and eventually doomed the Filipinos to their second loss also in five starts.

Ha Seung-Jin, a 7-foot-3 giant who played for the Portland Trail Blazers, banged home a two-handed dunk after the series of PH errors and naturalized forward Moon Tae-jong sealed the win with a pair of free throws.

“We made it close in the second half. But those turnovers in the last two minutes decided the game,” said Smart Gilas coach Rajko Toroman.

“We are so close but we definitely need some pieces from the PBA to make us stronger in the power forward position,” said Toroman, referring to Talk N Text power forward Kelly Williams.

JV Casio scored 15 of his game-high 27 points in the third, allowing the Filipinos to bounce back from a 40-28 deficit and knot the count at 56 entering the final period.

Marcus Douthit added 16 points and eight rebounds while Baracael had 13 after going three of three from beyond the arc.

“They’re a very experienced team. We committed a lot of turnovers and that cost us the game,” said Casio after Smart Gilas committed 16 turnovers against Korea’s 11.

The Nationals lost to the Koreans in the quarterfinals of last year’s Guangzhou Asian Games mainly due to turnovers and bad breaks in the end.

“You can’t make those kinds of mistakes against Korea. They’ll make you pay,” said Asi Taulava, who played in Guangzhou.

Veteran playmaker Dong Geun Yang also hurt Smart Gilas with his long-range bombs, knocking down four from three-point range and finishing with 17.

Earlier, Japan stunned Jordan, 87-70, a day after a bench-clearing incident against Chinese Taipei took the fight out of the Middle East squad. Jordan fell to 3-2 while Japan improved to 2-3.

Iran also tied Jordan and Smart Gilas after routing Malaysia, 69-49, in the other game.

The Korea-PH scores:

KOREA 78 – Oh 19, D.G. Yang 17, Ha 16, Moon 11, J.S. Kim 6, J.S. Lee
5, Kang 2, J.K. Kim 2, Park 0, Y,H. Kim 0, Cho 0, H.J. Yang 0.
PHILIPPINES 70 – Casio 27, Douthit 16, Baracael 13, Tiu 6, Lutz 4,
Taulava 2, Aguilar 2, Barroca 0, Hontiveros 0, Ballesteros 0, Lassiter
0, Ababou 0.
Quarters: 14-16; 37-28; 56-56; 78-70.