PH out to bounce back

JAYSON Castro drives against Tien Lei of Chinese Taipei in Saturday night’s match at Mall of Asia Arena. Francis T. J. Ochoa

A day after resting its limbs while trying to soothe a battered ego, Gilas Pilipinas returns to the floor today seeking to get back on track in the 27th Fiba Asia Championship.

After losing the game they wanted to win most in the first phase of the preliminaries, the Filipinos clash with Japan at the start of the second round today, looking to bury the ghost of a confidence-shaking Saturday night foldup against Chinese-Taipei.

Game time against the Japanese is 8:30 p.m. at Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay.

“Our priority is to put (Saturday night’s) game behind us and get ready for Japan,” said coach Chot Reyes.

Taking a 1-1 record into the second round, the Filipinos would need nothing less than a sweep of their next three assignments to guarantee that they won’t be playing any of the three regional powers—Iran, China and South Korea—in the quarterfinals.

The Filipinos battle dangerous Qatar tomorrow and then take on Hong Kong on Wednesday as they also pray that the Taiwanese drop at least two games to claim the group’s No. 1 seeding in the next phase.

The Taiwanese tangle with Hong Kong, Kazakhstan takes on China, Iran battles India, Qatar and Jordan slug it out, and South Korea clashes with Bahrain in other second-round games that start at 10:30 a.m. today.

The three qualifiers from all four groups, carrying their results from the first round, now form two brackets with the Philippines, Chinese Taipei and Jordan joining Qatar, Japan and Hong Kong in Group E, and Iran, South Korea and China merging with Kazakhstan, Bahrain and India in Group F.

After playing another round, the top four teams from each side move to the quarterfinals where the crossover format will pit E1 against F4, E2 against F3, E3 against F2 and E4 against F1.

The Philippines beat Japan the last time they clashed in the preliminary round of the William Jones Cup in Taipei last year, 88-84, in a game which the Japanese played without naturalized center JR Sakuragi.

The real target for the Filipinos is to finish at least third and claim a ticket back to the World Championship.

Japan was second in its first-round group behind Qatar and could provide a real match-up problem for the Filipinos because of its frontline made up of Sakuragi and Kosuke Takeuchi, the agile and talented 6-foot-10 forward who has been the face of Japanese basketball in recent years.

Takeuchi could be Ranidel de Ocampo and Marc Pingris’ problem as Reyes would obviously make Marcus Douthit the last line of defense and not make him chase Takeuchi.

The Japanese can shoot as hot as the Taiwanese on a good night and the perimeter defense should hold for Reyes, who can exploit the mismatches that Jayson Castro can create.