Norwood shuts down Jordan’s Baxter to key in PH’ comeback win

TOWERING NORWOOD  The Philippines’ Gabe Norwood gets the ball as Jordan’s Ahmad Alhamarsheh and Jimmy Baxter look on in their game at the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City Friday night, Aug. 2, 2013. The Philippines beat Jordan, 77-71, for its second victory in as many games in Group A of the 27th FIBA-Asia Championship. They will face Chinese-Taipei, also unbeaten in their group, Saturday. Photo by NUKI SABIO/PBA IMAGE 

MANILA, Philippines—Philippine team swingman Gabe Norwood displayed an all-around game, but not even his stat-stuffing numbers couldn’t tell just how much he impacted the Philippines’ 77-71 come-from-behind win over Jordan Friday night.

Guards Jayson Castro and Jeff Chan provided the offensive punch but the two-way player Norwood made sure Jordan wouldn’t answer with a counterpunch of its own—as he made life miserable for the Jordanians’ main source of offense in Jimmy Baxter.

“Gabe Norwood did a hell of a job tonight. We also thought Jim, after playing close to 36 minutes he might not be as effective but still you can’t take anything away from Gabe,” Smart Gilas Pilipinas coach Chot Reyes commended.

The six-foot-five Norwood was everywhere and did a little bit of everything apart from his eight points, eight rebounds, two steals and two blocks in a team-high 37 minutes.

“The offense flowed a lot smoother. The key was defense because we were making stops and that allowed us to go out and run,” added Reyes.

Norwood only had a couple of steals but he had a hand on the ball a lot of times at the defensive end—tapping and swiping—leading to crucial baskets for the Philippines, including an interception of Baxter’s pass that resulted to a right corner three by Chan to stretch the lead back to nine, 68-59, with 4:44 left.

Out of his eight rebounds, four came at the offensive glass, one of which paved way for a trey by Castro as part of the Philippines pivotal 17-0 run in the third quarter.

“[Jordan’s] coach did a great anticipation of our plan and he got a lot of other guys scoring. Hadrab really gave us problems, but we felt as long as we kept Baxter from scoring 30 we could live with Hadrab scoring baskets. In the end that’s what happened as long as we didn’t get 30 from Baxter we felt we could win the game.

Baxter, who erupted for 30 points in Jordan’s loss to Chinese Taipei Thursday, was silent in the first half and scored just 14 overall on 13 attempts with three turnovers.

Reyes’ plan was to limit Baxter and Norwood proved it works.

 Related Stories:

PH rallies to beat Jordan, 77-71, in FIBA-Asia