My fault, Guiao says of PH 5 loss

JAKARTA—Jordan Clarkson and the basketball team made their way past Filipino and international media just after the buzzer confirming the Filipinos’ exit in the medal rounds of the 18th Asian Games here on Monday afternoon.

They couldn’t mask their frustrations. And Filipino scribes allowed them that moment.

But coach Yeng Guiao didn’t point a finger at anything or anyone after the country bowed to South Korea, 91-82, in the quarterfinal round at GBK Basketball Hall.

“I take full responsibility for it,” Guiao said. “We were in the game until the last five to six minutes, until we committed some crucial turnovers. We were not comfortable with the zone (defense Korea played on us).

“It was my responsibility (to prepare them).”

Clarkson rebounded from a slow start by shooting 21 points in the final two periods. He paced himself well this time and didn’t cramp up, but a spate of bad decisions and critical errors did the Filipinos in.
At best, they hope to finish in fifth place, two notches higher than the 2014 team’s performance in Incheon.

The Filipinos blew an eight-point third-quarter lead, falling to the Korean zone and melting down in the fourth when the game was truly on the line as they finished with 13 turnovers after just five in the first half.

Guiao’s game plan of allowing Korea’s naturalized player, Ricardo Ratliffe, to operate inside almost worked, as the Filipinos didn’t give the Korean outside gunners many open looks. And if they did get it, they were simply missing it.

Until the tide turned in the fourth, when no amount of defense could scuttle Korea anymore.