MANILA, Philippines—A commendable scoring balance again carried Smart Gilas Pilipinas to its second blowout triumph, this time over Malaysia’s Westports Kuala Lumpur Dragons, 95-64, in day two of the 22nd FIBA Asia Champion’s Cup at the PhilSports Arena in Pasig.
A blistering second-half attack broke the game wide open for the Nationals, who overwhelmed the KL Dragons in the third quarter, 26-9, and blitzed to a 15-2 run at the start of the payoff period to take the lead for good.
Malaysia even held on to a 40-39 lead after the first two quarters where Smart Gilas was troubled with countless turnovers.
Six players from Smart Gilas, the only national team in the tournament, finished with double figures, while the rest of the team chipped in at least two points.
Chris Lutz, Mac Baracael, Jvee Casio, Mark Barroca and Dondon Hontiveros each had 10 points while Chris Tiu paced the Nationals with 11 points on a hot shooting night.
It was a glaring difference from Malaysia’s end, with American Chris Ayer singlehandedly doing the demolition job with 31 points and 13 rebounds.
“In our team, we split the time of our players,” said Smart Gilas’ Serbian mentor Rajko Toroman.
And after naturalized reinforcement Marcus Douthit, who was only able to throw in nine markers, got into foul trouble early in the game, national team vet Asi Taulava stepped in big time and brought about the intangibles for the Nationals.
Despite finishing with just four points along with 12 boards, Taulava was responsible for wearing down Ayer somehow in the second half.
“Asi (Taulava) made an impact,” Toroman added.
Smart Gilas led by as many as 31 points during the onslaught in the fourth period spearheaded by Barroca and Casio.
KL Dragons’ Filipino mentor Ariel Vanguardia thought the rout was “part of the growing pains,” for a team that only reassembled three weeks ago.
Earlier, Al Rayyan of Qatar opened up its bid with 90-67 blowout of Al Jalaa of Syria even as Al Ittihad of Saudi Arabia bounced back from the opening-night drubbing from Smart Gilas to beat Duhok of Iraq, 83-75.
Explosive guard Chauncey Leslie led the Qataris with 30 points before cramping up in the last two minutes of the contest.
Targuy Alban Ngombo came up with a 17-point-17-rebound effort for Qatar, which led by as high as 34.
The scores:
First game
AL-ITTUHAD SAUDI ARABIA 83—Dragajlovic 27, Aljuhani 21, Kabe 10, Keely 9, Ibrahim 9, Almaghrab 5, Almadani 2, Alqonsi 0.
DUHOK IRAQ 75- Gray 22, Giles 16, Al-Doori 10, Gorgiss 8, Mahdi 7, Agha 5, Mahdi 5, Al Tameemi 2, Hamad 0.
Second game
AL RAYYAN QATAR 90—Leslie 30, Musa 21, Ngombo 17, Ndour 11, Abdulla 6, Ali 3, Saeed 2, Salem 0.
AL JALAA SYRIA 67—Papazian 20, Haj Ishak 11, Yaqqub 10, Madanly 8, Miller 6, Walker 5, Deeb 5, Gorges 2.
Third game
SMART GILAS PILIPINAS 95—Tiu 11, Lutz 10, Barroca 10, Baracael 10, Casio 10, Hontiveros 10, Douthit 9, Lassiter 8, Aguilar 6, Ababou 5, Taulava 4, Ballesteros 2.
WKL DRAGONS 64—Ayer 31, Morrison 15, Kwaan 7, Batumalai 5, Ooi 2, Loh 2, Kamaruddin 0, Kuppusamy 0, Ho 0, Ng 0, Chin 0.