Gilas Pilipinas bows to South Korea in 2015 Jones Cup

Philippines’ Terrence Romeo (middle) continues to dazzle in the 2015 Jones Cup. Romeo’s game-high 23 points however, weren’t enough to lift Gilas Pilipinas, which dropped an 82-70 decision Monday night at Xinchuang gymnasium in Taipei. Photo from the Chinese Taipei Basketball Association

Games Tuesday

(Xinchuang Gymnasium)

1 p.m. – Spartak Primorye vs Gilas Pilipinas

3 p.m. – Iran vs Wellington Saints

5 p.m. – USA Select-Overtake vs South Korea

7p.m. – Chinese Taipei-B vs Chinese Taipei-A

TAIPEI – Terrence Romeo couldn’t rescue Gilas Pilipinas by himself from this latest drought.

The Filipinos went scoreless for close to six minutes at a crucial span in the fourth quarter on Monday night and took a first loss in the Jones Cup flush on the chin, an 82-70 drubbing at the hands of arch-rival South Korea at Xinchuang gymnasium here.

Romeo scored nine of his game-high 23 points in the fourth period – and had a couple of highlight plays again – but got little help from everyone else, as Gilas couldn’t recover from a 58-69 hole it fell into after yielding 11 straight points from a 58-all tie.

The loss was the first in two games for the Nationals, at whose expense the Koreans were able to snap a two-game slide with four players shooting in twin digits and American-Korean forward Moon Tae-young completing a double-double with 17 and 12 boards.

“It doesn’t matter what I did in the fourth quarter because our team still lost,” Romeo, who now has an average of 20.5 points in the first two games, told reporters. “We need to learn from our mistakes and make the team win.”

Gilas also had a long drought on Sunday night, when they went without a bucket for more than four minutes and lost a 16-point halftime lead to go into the fourth period tied with Chinese Taipei-A.

There wasn’t a recovery of that sort against the Koreans, not even close.

The Filipinos will now enter the meat of their schedule starting Tuesday when they clash with two unbeaten powerhouses in the same number of days.

Spartak Primorye of Russia will be their next assignment at 1 p.m. on Tuesday, before Gilas clashes with Iran the day after. At the very least, the Filipinos need a split to stay alive in the tournament.

“I thought we were very individualistic, and I don’t like that,” Gilas coach Tab Baldwin, seated next to Romeo – the man who has come up with most of the great individual plays thus far in the tournament – said.

“They just outplayed us. I thought they were the better team,” he added. “We just have to check that (individuality). Offensively, we just didn’t have the flow.”

Shooting guard Lee Seung-hyun paced the Koreans with 19 points, highlighting his sterling offensive effort with the backbreaking three in the waning seconds which put the game out of reach for the Filipinos, 79-70.

The Philippines made just 16 points in the final frame with Gary David, who finished with 16, shooting five and Calvin Abueva making just a free throw.

Abueva still finished with nine markers but couldn’t help Romeo offensively in the fourth, unlike on Sunday night when he, Jason Castro and Romeo took turns in hurting the Taiwanese.

Castro was held down to just seven.

Baldwin and Korean counterpart Kim Dong-kwang had a brief exchange of words at centercourt after the final buzzer, all because one Korean player elected to take – and make – a three-pointer near the buzzer when the game had already been won.

Baldwin thought that it was unethical for one player to do that, but Kim said that his player, Kim Sun-yung, had a bad game overall and just wanted to get a rhythm.

“I know as a coach that it was impolite to do that,” Kim said through an interpreter. “But my player wanted to prove himself because he had a bad (offensive) night.”

The scores:

SOUTH KOREA 82 – Lee Seunghyun 19, Moon 17, Lee Jonghyun 12, Lee Jonghyun Hyun 11, Kim 8, Park 6, Kim S. H. 5, Ha 2, Kim T. S. 2, Lee J. H. 1

GILAS PILIPINAS 70 – Romeo 23, David 16, Abueva 9, Castro 7, de Ocampo 5, Taulava 4, Tautuaa 2, Intal 2, Ramos 2, Pingris 0, Norwood 0, Alapag 0

Quarters: 20-21; 36-34; 54-54; 82-70.