Capitalizing their biggest shooting disparity, Asian rival South Korea rode on a hot-shooting late-game onslaught that helped them escape with an 83-72 victory against the offensive struggling Gilas Pilipinas in 29th William Jones Cup on Wednesday evening at Taipei Peace International Basketball Hall.
South Korea started the game with more intensity and aggressiveness that gave them a better 7/9 fts against 4/6 of Gilas, 20-16.
Gilas, however, had a hard time rotating the ball, added by point-blank misses, allowing the Koreans to display much smoothness on their offensive plays that gave them a huge 11-point lead. But Standhardinger and Ravena, combined by the relentless Myers’ rebounding efforts, rapidly fire-powered the Philippine team on the offensive end, narrowing the gap within two.
Nevertheless, a controversial foul call at 3:13 mark of the second period against Kiefer Ravena rewarded the Koreans a technical free throw and additional two charities to widened their lead, 36-30.
A cat-quick Jio Jalalon’s offensive prowess, meanwhile, gave Gilas a back-to-back baskets but on the defensive end, a Korean gunner was fouled by Ray Parks Jr. outside the three-point line that gave their Asian rivals a three easy throws to expand the lead, 42-37, at the end of the action-packed first half.
The Philippines found themselves out of rhythm in the rainbow country with a poor 0 out of seven accuracy in the whole first half.
Right after the whistle opened the second half, a mini run was showcased by the Koreans through their immediate transition scoring but the Filipinos answered back courtesy of Matthew Wright’s hard-earned point inside the paint.
However, a back-to-back effortless triples by the Koreans hurt the the Philippines as they grabbed a larger 12-point deficit.
An unlucky zero out of 11 shooting beyond the arc for Gilas finally ended as Jio Jalalon broke the ice for the Filipinos with his uncontested top of the key triple.
Unfortunately for the GIlas, a Jalalon lone show was not yet enough for them as the gritty Koreans kept trading baskets, and even outdueled the Filipinos, carrying the largest 15-point lead at the end of the third period.
Myers and Standhardinger, the twin towers of Gilas, went to work at the crucial period of the last quarter and lifted the roaring crowd with their impressive alley-oop slam. This was added by another Myers throw down from a Standhardinger’s mid range jumper miss but these seemed to be the end of Gilas’ lucky end-game break.
There was no looking back since for the valiant Koreans as they hit two consecutive inside hits to stop the bleeding for the Koreans, resulted a widening gap and finally sealed the game at 83-72.
Jalalon and Myers led the Gilas with 18 points a piece, followed by Standhardinger’s 16 points.
The sloppy shooting Gilas Pilipinas got only one out of 26 shots from the rainbow country compared to the six out of 19 shooting by the Koreans. | Tretch Melarpes – PTV
