Gilas rebounds mightily with ripping of Taipei

FILE PHOTO – Matthew Wright. Photo by Tristan Tamayo/ INQUIRER.net

Games Monday

(Taipei Peace Basketball Hall)

11 a.m. – Atletas All-Stars Lithuania vs Japan

1 p.m. – Iraq vs Canada 150

3 p.m. – Gilas Pilipinas vs Chinese Taipei B

5 p.m. – Iran vs South Korea

7 p.m. – Chinese Taipei A vs India

TAIPEI – Addressing all the problems it had the night before, Gilas Pilipinas came out a much better team on Sunday and tore Chinese Taipei A to shreds, 88-72, for its first win in the 39^th Jones Cup Invitational carved out in front of a very hostile crowd at Taipei Peace Basketball Hall here.

Matthew Wright and Christian Standhardinger did the damage on the Taiwanese in different phases of the game, finishing with 17 points each with the 6-foot-7 Fil-German winding up with 15 rebounds in a truly impressive outing.

Team Philippines improved to 1-1 and totally put the stigma of a lukewarm debut against Canada behind.

Wright scored 14 points in the first half and set the shooting tone for the Filipinos, who played much better compared to a losing effort in their debut on Saturday as Gilas got back in the title hunt.

“We wanted to take care of the ball and make sure that we defended better,” coach Chot Reyes said. “And we did that tonight.”

Gilas had just seven turnovers and clamped down on the Taiwanese, playing more intelligent defense by giving up just 19 free throws. Against the Canadians, Gilas had 23 errors and yielded 40 free throws.

Kiefer Ravena started out at the point and orchestrated with great effect for Gilas, which looked a lot more composed and refused to be ruffled by the boisterous hometown crowd.

Ravena hit a shot clock-beating triple with 3:17 to play that made it 80-69 as the gritty Filipinos wrapped it all up to take a winning feeling going into a clash with Chinese Taipei B at 3 p.m. on Monday.

The scores:

GILAS PILIPINAS 88 – Wright 17, Standhardinger 17, Ravena 15, Pogoy 10, Myers 9, Cruz 6, Ferrer 5, Tolomia 4, Jalalon 3, Parks 2, Belo 0, Paras 0.

CHINESE TAIPEI A 72 – Zheng 16, Po 14, Yi 13, Davis 11, Cheng 6, Long 5, Yi-Jie 4, Zhi 0, Huan 0.

Quarters: 23-22, 47-40, 68-60, 88-72.