‘Twas like Busan as Koreans trip Gilas 5

Smart Gilas Pilipinas took an ego-deflating loss in the 4th Asian Basketball Association Club Championship 

Sunday, but consoled itself with the news that Asi Taulava and Kelly Williams will be joining the Nationals in the Asian Games.

The RP five squandered a couple of double-digit leads and allowed the Korea Samsung Thunder to escape with an 83-82 squeaker in the finals of the weeklong meet held in Haining, China.

Smart Gilas, the only national team in the field, padded its seven-point lead in the first period to 42-32 at the half, but could not put the Koreans away.

Leaning on their fiery outside shooting, the Koreans grabbed the lead at 57-55 to set the stage for an exciting finish.

The Filipinos seemed to have the title locked up with an 82-80 lead, but the Koreans scored on a three-pointer with two seconds left to nail the win.

The heartbreaking loss recalled a similar one-point setback by the all-pro RP team to South Korea in the 2002 Busan Asian Games semifinals courtesy of another buzzer-beating three-pointer.

Naturalization candidate Marcus Douthit and Mac Baracael fired 18 points apiece while skipper Chris Tiu and JV Casio added 15 and 10.

“We’re  proud of the boys, they gave it all,” said RP five manager Frankie Lim.

The Nationals found solace in the news that the PBA board had approved during its meeting in Bangkok Sunday the inclusion of Taulava and Williams for the Asiad campaign.

A source said coach Rajko Toroman was also allowed to pick one more PBA player after reigning league MVP James Yap begged off after undergoing nose surgery recently.

Toroman has a short list of possible replacements headed by San Miguel’s Arwind Santos and Dondon Hontiveros and Rain or Shine’s Gabe Norwood and Sol Mercado.