Heartbreaker for cagebelles; men a win from gold

KELAPA GADING, Jakarta—The undersized Philippine women’s basketball team played like champions and moved within 1.5 seconds of Southeast Asian Games history—only to come to grief in the end.

The shot at the Games’ first-ever basketball golden double vanished after the Filipinas failed to cling to a three-point lead in regulation and dropped a heartbreaker to Thailand in overtime, 73-75, to settle—at best—for the silver medal.

Later, the men’s team broke away from Malaysia with a small, running five in the third period for a 103-74 win that put them in the gold-medal match on Sunday against either Thailand or Indonesia at the BritAma Arena here.

The Filipinos were dragged into a nip-and-tuck game for the first time in four matches in the first half before pulling away off fastbreaks in the third period.

“I thought the first half was good for us—we were tested,” said men’s coach Norman Black.

After showing up the taller Thais all game long, the Filipinas missed one crucial stop and allowed the enemy to forge extension at 64-all. A three-pointer by Jantakan Junthamas beat the buzzer.

The Filipinas then lapsed into a spate of errors and bungled three free throws in extra time as Thailand regained regional supremacy.

The Thais can drop its final game and still snatch the gold from the Filipinas due to the winner-over-the-other rule.

“Those were breaks of the game and we cannot do anything about them now,” said national coach Haydee Ong, who consoled her devastated players after the game. “We tried but fell just short.”

Thailand closes out its schedule against Myanmar and is heavily favored against the Burmese Saturday.

The loss is the bitterest for the Philippines in the sport. After erasing an 11-point deficit in the first half, the Filipinas moved ahead, 64-61, time down to 13.7 seconds, on a Merenciana Arayi free throw off the final foul of 6-foot-4 Thai center Banmoo Naruemol.

The Thais actually had two more possessions after that and they missed the first with Arayi snaring the rebound only with play to be stopped with 1.5 ticks left.

Thinking she was fouled and would be awarded charities, Arayi and the rest of the team whooped it up in center court.

But referee Donald Quinn ruled the Filipina forward had travelled and awarded possession to the Thais.

The scores:
(Women)
THAILAND 75—Naruemol 19, Juthathip 13, Chirdpetcharat 11, Jantakan 10, Wipaporn 7, Chamnarnwaree 7, Suksomwong 5, Tunsaw 0, Sangkhum 0, Yothanan 0.
PHILIPPINES 73—Arayi 18, Almazan 14, Gloriani 10, Flormata 8, Grajales 7, Borja 6, Jacob 4, Jose 4, Mercado 2, Adriano 0.
Quarters: 15-16, 38-39, 50-47, 64-all, 75-73
(Men)
PHILIPPINES 103—Slaughter 16, Hodge 12, Pascual 11, Garcia 11, Salva 11, Parks 8, Tiu 7, Lanete 7, Monfort 6, Ravena 5, Marcelo 2.
MALAYSIA 73—Batumalai 24, Kwaan 11, Ooi 10, Wee 8, Ng 7, Kuppusami 5, Wong 2, Loh 2.
Quarters: 23-19, 44-41, 73-60, 103-74