Korea spoils Gilas bid

TAIPEI – With its outside guns jamming at the wrong time, in the wrong game, Gilas Pilipinas on Wednesday night couldn’t climb out of a deep hole it dug itself in and all but bowed out of the title chase in the Jones Cup Invitational.

A night after their championship aspirations got a much-needed shot-in-the-arm from a bitter rival, the Filipinos fired duds practically all night against South Korea and went down, 83-72 that left the Koreans tied for the lead at Taipei Peace Basketball Hall here.

“We shot, what, 1-for-65 from three-point range? You can’t beat a quality team like Korea by shooting that way,” coach Chot Reyes said, though there was very little trace of bitterness on his part after the Filipinos lost for the first time in the last four nights for 3-2 overall.

“I thought we played a terrific game. The effort that the players gave out was incredible,” he said. “And we held that (Korean) team to 83, a lot of them off free throws at garbage time.

“That would have been enough (for us to win),” he went on as Korea nonetheless improved to 4-1 and tied Canada at the top. “We just couldn’t make our shots.”

The exact shooting clip that Reyes was looking for was 1-for-26, with only Jio Jalalon making the long
Philippine triple. “Had we made just four, we could have won that game.”

Jalalon finished with 18 points in just over 13 minutes of work, while Mike Myers had 18 and 17 rebounds despite going 8-for-15 from the free throw line.

Next up for the Filipinos is Iraq, and though the title could be well out of reach, Gilas is not expected to slow down one bit with the core of this team being whipped into fierce shape by Reyes for the Southeast Asian Games late next month.

Matthew Wright, after shooting at least 14 points in each of the last three victories for the Filipinos, went 0-fot-7 from beyond the arc after making nine in the last two games. He finished with just four points, far from breaching twin digits.

The Filipinos trailed big at the start of the second half before making a game out of it, 69-73, heading into the final two minutes after a Myers slam.

But Oh Se-keun, a long time member of the Korean national team, hit two straight short stabs that put it out of reach as Korea gathered the momentum it needs going into its critical battle with Canada 150 also on Thursday.

The Koreans and the Canadian slug it out in the 1 p.m. contest, with the Philippines taking the floor at 5 p.m. against Iraq.

A win by the Koreans would basically leave Chinese Taipei A as the last stumbling block to the championship, with that match to happen on the final day on Sunday.

Tournament format calls for the team with the best record to win the title after one round, and the Philippines got the boost it needed on Tuesday night after the Taiwanese clipped the Canadians, 89-86.

Hope of winning the title via the backdoor – since the Filipinos got a sound drubbing from the Canadians in the inaugural – was short-lived because of the loss.

The scores:
SOUTH KOREA 83 – Oh 14, Lee J. 14, Choi 11, Heo 11, Kim SH 8, Lim 6, Lee SH 6, Heo 6, Lee JH 5, Jeon 0, Kim 0.
GILAS PILIPINAS 72 – Jalalon 18, Myers 18, Standhardinger 16, Ravena 8, Parks 4, Wright 4, Cruz 2, Pogoy 2, Belo 0, Tomonia 0, Ferrer 0, Jose 0.
Quarters: 20-16, 42-37, 66-51, 83-72.