TAIPEI: There’s a smile in coach Yeng Guiao’s face again.
With his Philippine National crew finally playing near its potential, Guiao couldn’t hide his appreciation after an 85-67 destruction of Kazakhstan for the Filipinos’ first win the 31st Jones Cup at the Hsinchuang gymnasium here.
“I’m not totally happy because we lost in a bad way (in the first two games),” coach Yeng Guiao told reporters. “But the prospects of making it to the next round (in the Fiba-Asia) are now good.
“Once you make the next round, doon na tayo mag-ambisyon,” he added. “What’s important right now is that we can compete against Korea and Japan (which belong to the same group as the Philippines in Tianjin ).” The Filipinos ran the Kazakhs to the ground right from the opening tip, as a speed unit that had Willie Miller at the point and the promising Japeth Aguilar in the middle built leads of as many as 10 points in the first period.
Team Philippines later upped this to as large as 20 several times, playing with the sense of urgency Guiao had asked ever since the start and the defense that was unforgiving both up high and down low.
Kazakhstan , which the Philippines has not beaten since the 1998 edition of this tournament when the Centennial Team under Tim Cone ruled this event, remained winless in three games.
Help, though, for the Kazakhs is coming, with talented 6-foot-10 center Anton Ponomarev and NBA Summer League veteran Matt Frejier set to join the team in the next couple of days as they also prepare for the Fiba-Asia qualifying in Tianjin , China .
Up next for the Filipinos is Japan at 3 p.m. today, and Guiao hinted that he “would be saving something for Tianjin “ when they clash with the Japanese, who also belong to the same group as the Philippines in the Fiba-Asia.
The Philippines drew Japan , Sri Lanka and Korea in Group A in Tianjin , with the top three teams in each of the four groups to advance to the next round, which will be the pre-quarterfinal.
That’s why Guiao sees the improvement of his boys to be coming just at the right time, since his squad will leave for China on August 4 after playing Lebanon in the Philippines when this tournament concludes on Monday.
Lebanon , meanwhile, lost for the first time in three outings earlier after its star, Fati El-Khatib, was held to just 14 points by the stingy Jordan defense in an 83-73 victory.
The Jordanians, who dealt the Philippines a 39-point whipping on opening day, thus zoomed to the solo lead with a 3-0 card as of presstime.
The youthful Aguilar, a 6-foot-9 center who arrived in the Philippines less than a month ago from Western Kentucky University in the United States , is slowly but surely playing according to expectations.
He was the showman for the Philippines for the second straight night, scoring on several slams that the small, early afternoon crowd appreciated. He finished with 11 points and had four rebounds while providing the intimidating presence for the Philippines in the shaded lane.
Jay-Jay Helterbrand, who won his first MVP trophy in the PBA two weeks ago, scored seven points and had four assists in his first stint in the tournament, moving as if his left hamstring has completely healed.
Miller, who has two PBA MVP trophies with different teams, scored 13 points and paced the Filipinos in scoring for the second straight game.
Guiao played the 6-foot firebrand for 17 minutes, and Helterbrand said he didn’t feel any pain in the old injury, giving promise that the Philippines could go to Tianjin having one of the finest point guards in Asia in its lineup.
“They (Filipinos) played fantastic basketball,” Kazakhstan coach Oleg Kiselev said through an interpreter. “One of the reasons for our failure (in this game) is that we couldn’t handle the fast-paced game of the Philippines .
“We did inform our players (of this),” added the reedy coach, who bared that his squad will be heading straight to Beijing from here to take part in a pocket tournament among four nations before plunging into action in Tianjin.
