TAIPEI: The good thing about it is, Team Philippines is having all that pent up emotions heading into a bigger battle that’s now just around the corner.
With National coach Yeng Guiao still electing to conceal some “aces” up his sleeves, the Filipinos dropped a nail-biter to Korea , 83-80, in Jones Cup action at the Hsinchuang Gymnasium here Thursday night.
But you can see that the confidence is not lost on the mercurial Philippine coach, because he was smiling when he went to the press room to give an interview to an international panel of mediamen.
“It’s good to be able to feel and study the Koreans because I think they will be our toughest competition in Tianjin,” said Guiao, referring to Group A action in the Fiba-Asia World Championship qualifier set to start in China on Aug. 6. “I was very tempted to play them (Koreans) in a zone (defense, to negate their perimeter game),” Guiao told Filipino scribes in the native tongue later. “But I would want to reserve that (ploy) for China (in the Fiba-Asia World Championship qualifiers).”
“I also could have gotten a lot more (offensively) from James ( Yap ) and Jay-Jay (Helterbrand),” he added.
He was also asked to assess if the Koreans played the Filipinos straight up, and he was convinced that the enemy did.
“They wanted to win,” added Guiao, who will prune down his 14-man lineup to 12 Friday, with two swingmen likely to get the boot and Ryan Reyes likely to stay though his hamstring injury has yet to completely heal.
The Philippines ‘fifth loss in six games came two days after blowing a 19-point lead against Japan. But the Filipinos showed a lot of poise, composure and firepower in this one, erasing a 16-point third quarter deficit and having a chance to win in the stretch.
Ranidel de Ocampo drilled a triple and Sonny Thoss nailed a turnaround jumper to shove the Philippines within 78-76 with 1:50 remaining.
But Oh Se-Keun, a shifty guard, buried a 3-pointer — his first and only attempt from there — with 1:25 remaining for 81-76, and Yang Dong-Geun negated Arwind Santos’ breakaway stuff with a leaning jumper against Willie Miller to make it 83-78 with 43 seconds to go.
“We shot a little better from last night and that’s the reason we were able to keep the game close,” added Guiao.
In fact, the Philippines made 10 triples like the Koreans, quite a surprise considering how poorly the Filipinos shot in their first three games, a combined 11-of-68 from beyond the arc. Last night, Team Philippines showed it can shoot the lights out even against a country regarded as the deadliest shooters in the region.
Arwind Santos scattered 22 points, starting point guard Willie Miller added 14 and Sonny Thoss, a surprise offensive producer for the Philippines in the tournament, had 13 in the Filipinos’ finest outing thus far.
The Filipinos take a breather Friday before returning to action Saturday against dangerous Chinese Taipei-B at 3 p.m. with no less than a decent record at stake for them.
On Sunday, they wind up their stint here against Iran before planing back home on Monday. The team will stay in the Philippines only for a week before departing for Tianjin to try and achieve what it was built for — finish at least third there and land a spot in the World Championships in Istanbul, Turkey, next year. “From the way it looks, I think we can handle them,” Guiao added.
“I don’t think we will have problems taking on their guards (in China). We just need to learn to defend against their big men (in the Fiba-Asia).”
Kim Joo-soong, a 7-foot beanpole, was played for only 18 minutes but still managed 10 points as Korea also elected to sort of pull its punches, but not in the crucial stretches of the game which allowed Guiao to get a good look at the Koreans.
Guiao, aside from giving Helterbrand and Yap little playing time, also limited the exposure of defensive man Jared Dillinger, Asi Taulava, Gabe Norwood, and Japeth Aguilar, who was on the floor only for 12 minutes.
Meanwhile, the nine-team, eight-nation tournament suffered a blackeye earlier when Jordan walked out of its game against Iran after both benches cleared because game officials couldn’t control the game.
A furious Mario Palma, the defending champion Jordan ‘s Portuguese coach, cost them their first loss after four lopsided victories after ordering the walk-out and forfeiting the game effectively.
That made it a four-way tie atop the standings with the Koreans joining the Jordanians, Lebanon and the Iranians.
