The second team of Chinese Taipei was able to fight tooth and nail, but fell short and gave the Gilas team a hard-earned victory, 93-82, in 2017 William Jones Cup on Monday afternoon in Taipei Heping Gymnasium, Taiwan.
Gilas youngsters, not as sharp as the last time, found their defensive game not as intact as their yesterday’s game against the Chinese Taipei’s main team, and gave the other Taiwanese team an easy time to show their offensive prowess.
The second team of Chinese Taipei was able to flip the script for a short time as they kept their scoring pace and grabbed the lead through Kyle Barone’s spin move, forcing his way inside the paint in the last 5 secs of 1st quarter, 20-18.
Unable to find some important defensive stops just like the first quarter, the Gilas players let their counterparts continue to showcase surprising performance through the Taiwanese squad’s inside and outside operators, and able to sustain the narrow gap.
But a Ravena-Ferrer fancy play stopped the bleeding for GIlas and tied the ball with 42 a piece. Both teams found themselves on an alarming situation, and delivered traded goods for their own squads, and tied the ball game at the end of second quarter, 44-all.
Gunning the offensive pace at the start of the second half, Gilas started strong with swarming defensive stops and impressive quick 6 unanswered points that alarmed the opposing team and made them to consume their early first time out.
The third phase of game showed a more physical game for both teams but smallest Jio Jalalon showed an immediate tenacity by grabbing a powerful rebound mid-air against the much bigger Barone and gathered an And1 opportunity, but failed to deliver the charity.
Kyle Barone, however, erupted the crowd with his cat-quick cut and emphatic throwdown that brought his team down by 4, 64-60, but Wright and Standhardinger responded with their own specialties, a triple and a power play inside the paint, 69-60.
But the rally is not yet over as a sneaky play gave the Taiwanese a nice look inside and brought his team to more a manageable lead, 69-62, at the end of the third phase.
Both teams, showing will-power, continued to trade baskets inside and outside the paint in the fourth quarter, but the pandemonium broke loose when Jio Jalalon took over with his flashy dibbling skills, crossing over to giant opponents and gave his team a 5-point lead.
The Chinese Taipei threatened many times but the Philippine team managed to dodge some bullets.
Wright, as always, continued to let those three-ball fly and gave Gilas an important widened lead in the middle of the final phase, 77-73.
The talented young boys, fortunately, were not yet contented as Jalalon again provided some needed sparks through his transition plays and ‘puso’ mentality. Combined this was the immediate cold-blooded triple courtesy of Pogoy as the game approached the twilight, 88-79.
There was no looking behind since for Gilas Pilipinas as they pulled away in the last minute of fourth quarter and grabbed the victory, 93-82.
With this, the Philippine team improved to a 2-1 record.
Myers tallied a rare double-double production with 14 points and 14 rebounds while Wright delivered his game-high performance with 21 points, 5-of-9 shooting from arc.
Pogoy also contributed 15 points and Jalalon inserted 13 markers, 5 assists, 5 rebounds.
Christian Standhardinger had 6 points and 9 rebound, while Kiefer Ravena registered 10 points, 7 assists, two steals.
Gilas next opponent will be Japan on Tuesday, July 18 at 1 pm. | Tretch Melarpes – PTV
