HWASEONG, South Korea—For whatever it’s worth, Gilas Pilipinas ended a rough 17th Asian Games campaign with a victory yesterday.
The Filipinos turned to Ranidel De Ocampo as the main man in an 84-68 triumph over Mongolia Wednesday at Hwaseong Sports Complex gymnasium that gave the squad that was eyeing a gold medal here at the start a dismal seventh place finish.
De Ocampo scored 25 points for the Philippines, which plunged to its worst performance in the quadrennial meet, going a notch lower than a pair of sixth-place finishes in 1966 and 2010. It was also the first time that an all-pro squad represented the Philippines in the Asiad and finished out of the top four.
And this one hurt a lot, coming as it did after a strong showing in the Fiba World Cup.
“It’s good to end with the win,” said national coach Chot Reyes. “But the reality is we weren’t able to deliver on the expectations. The entire plan was to play in the semifinals today. But that’s sports. That’s the nature of it. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose.”
And the sometimes-you-lose part nearly happened again, when Mongolia led by as many as 12 in the first period, a hole the Filipinos dug out of with a 20-9 second quarter.
Reyes, though, is looking at the debacle as a chance to sponge up some lessons.
“We won in the Jones Cup. We won in the Fiba Asia. We set the record in the Worlds but we didn’t deliver in the Asian Games. So the only thing left is to look forward and learn the lessons here,” he said.
Mongolia, which came out with a sprinkle of surprising performances here, looked headed for an upset after dunking the Filipinos in a 4-16 hole in the first quarter.
June Mar Fajardo had five points in a 13-1 run that gave Gilas Pilipinas a 38-30 lead at the half. Mongolia crawled to within two, but the Filipinos fired back with eight straight points to pull away at 60-49.
The scores:
GILAS PILIPINAS 84—De Ocampo 25, Tenorio 11, Norwood 11, Fajardo 11, Chan 8, David 8, Aguilar 7, Dillinger 3, Douthit 0, Lee 0.
MONGOLIA 68—Battuvshin 18, Tungalag 15, Otgonbaatar 11, Shinen 11, Ganbold 6, Davaasambuu 4, Oyuntsetseg 3, Munkhbayar 0, Munkhtur 0, Tserendagva 0.
Quarters: 18-21, 38-30, 63-55, 84-68