Philippines guard Jayson Castro challenges the defense of Iran giant Hamed Haddadi during their game in the second round of the 2015 Fiba Asia Championship on Monday in Changsha, China. Photo from Fiba.com
CHANGSHA CITY, China – Up against a foe that has never been touched and never been pushed in the Fiba Asia Olympic Qualifier, Gilas Pilipinas sent shockwaves across the tournament by making defending champion Iran look so bad.
Andray Blatche took Hamed Haddadi to school in their very first meeting in an international setting, and that unraveled the Iranians in the second half as the Filipinos ran them to the ground on the way to an 87-73 victory on Monday at Changsha Social Work College Gym here.
More than the 18 points and seven rebounds he had, Blatche never gave Haddadi the chance to dominate as the Iranians fell apart after blowing a 10-point lead early in the third quarter to go down in flames for the first time in more than a week.
Jason Castro, meanwhile, was at his deadliest self, finishing with 26 points with two others tossing in twin digits for the Philippines, which effectively took first place from the Iranians in Group E after rising to 3-1.
“This is what you hope for in this tournament – a great game,” Gilas Pilipinas coach Tab Baldwin told international press later. “We’re happy of course with the win, but in the dugout, there’s a lot of humility there.
“The guys were saying that we have a lot more work left and we have to take care of business tomorrow,” added Baldwin, as the Filipinos brought the Iranians crashing back to earth after they had bamboozled their first four foes by an average of more than 45 points.
The victory also effectively took China and Iran out of the equation as a Final Four foe for the Philippines.
Not that everyone in the squad is looking that far ahead, but finishing first after this round would more or less put the Filipinos in a collision course with South Korea in the semifinals.
To top this stage, the Filipinos must first take care of business against India at 2:30 p.m. on Tuesday before taking a breather on Wednesday and starting out the KO stages against possibly Lebanon or Jordan in the quarterfinals the following day.
Samad Nikha Bahrami, regarded as possibly the finest swingman in Asia, drilled a three-pointer with 8:33 left in the third period that gave the Iranians a 47-37 lead.
But instead of folding up and dying, the Filipinos fought with much more resolve and scored nine straight points to make a game out of it before methodically breaking away with several more spurts that opened up a 65-60 lead going into the fourth.
Iran lapsed into a series of turnovers with Mahdi Kamrani – the third member of its vaunted international troika – failing to hold the team together as a 15-7 spurt in the first 6:30 of the fourth put the game away for the Philippines, 80-67.
Haddadi was so frustrated that he literally pulled himself out of the game with four minutes left by committing a technical foul on Calvin Abueva for his disqualification.
Abueva and Terrence Romeo – both national team rookies – were the other bright offensive performers for the Filipinos, finishing with a combined 28.
Bahrami paced Iran with 21, while Haddadi finished with just 10 and seven rebounds.