Gilas-Pilipinas beats Saudis in opener; South Korea stuns China

Alarmed and disappointed are two different words.
Gilas-Pilipinas overcame a bad shooting night and repulsed Saudi Arabia, 78-66, at the start of its FIBA-Asia Championship quest Thursday night, a victory which, though not that impressive against a nation that considers football its national sport, did not alarm head coach Chot Reyes that much.
“At the back of my mind (I knew) that we will have a difficult time in this first game,” Team Philippines coach Chot Reyes said after the game witnessed by a supportive home crowd at the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay.
“I’m not really alarmed, just disappointed,” continued Reyes. “We had too may turnovers tonight. And we didn’t make many outside shots.”
Aside from throwing bricks from the perimeter, the Filipinos also did not take care of the ball very well, allowing the Saudis into the game several times, including at one point in the stretch when they came within seven points.
“I just hope that tomorrow (today) will be a better day for us, that we can get a much better game than tonight,” Reyes added as his wards clash with Jordan also in the main game set at 8:30 p.m.
“Jordan is a bigger team and they love to pound inside so it’s going to be a test,” said Reyes.
Saudi Arabia actually held the lead after the first 12 minutes, aided in part by a lethargic Philippine team shooting, 16-14.
Jason Castro and Ranidel de Ocampo, who sustained ankle sprains in a tune-up match against Kazakhstan less than a week before opening day, and Jeff Chan got the crowd involved in the second quarter when they started hitting from the perimeter.
The Filipinos then took a 66-50 lead into the fourth only to suffer another scoring drought and allowing two Saudi triples that had their foes coming within seven points.
Still, the end result was the start that Team Philippines wanted as it aims to top its preliminary round groupings and gain the lightest assignment possible in the quarterfinals – the first round of the KO stages.
Overall, Gilas was 32 of 76 from the field, including 18 missed three-pointers.
Team Philippines wraps up its Group A campaign against Chinese Taipei on Saturday.
“Hopefully, Marcus can find his touch,” said Reyes after the naturalized Marcus Douthit hit just 10 points. “He was atrocious tonight and we will need his outside shooting.”
LA Tenorio, the MVP in last year’s Jones Cup won by the Philippines, and Larry Fonacier scattered 12 points each to pace all Filipino shooters.
Ayman Almuwallad had 18 markers to lead the Saudis, absent for the last two editions of this biennial meet.
South Korea chopped down hulking China to size in an earlier game, pounding out a 63-59 victory over the defending champions to also serve notice of its might in the 15-nation event where the top three placers get World Championship slots next year.
Playing with great poise, the Koreans got four pressure-packed free throws from Cho Sung-min and heady guard Yang Dong-geun in the dying seconds to share the early Group C lead with mighty Iran.
The Iranians didn’t show any mercy on a hapless Malaysian crew, 115-25, in what stands as the ugliest rout thus far in the 10-day event.
Hamed Haddadi, the 7-foot-2 NBA vet, paced the 2007 and 2009 champion Iranians with 21 points.
Former NBA standout Yi Jianlian and point guard Wang Shipeng were stellar for the most part for the Chinese, until crucial errors from each in the dying seconds helped seal China’s doom.
“They are taller than we are, so we really focused on the match-ups,” Korean coach Yoo Jae-hak told reporters through an interpreter. “This is just one win. This is a long tournament. For now, I’m glad that we overcame China.”
Cho, who also helped Korea hold down the former Milwaukee Buck Yi, hit a free throw with 21.5 seconds left that gave the Koreans a 61-57 lead.
“He (Yi) is very good – tall and quick,” the Korean coach said of the 7-foot Yi, who also had a stint with the Washington Wizards. “We just worked together as a team on the defensive end to stop him.”
Those two Cho free throws were actually his fourth straight after he had shattered the game’s last tie at 57 with under 40 seconds remaining.
Xiaoxu Li’s hard maneuver to the basket made made it 61-59, but Dong restored the safe lead for the Koreans with a pair of free throws off Yi as Wang missed two straight triples as time expired.
In another thrilling contest, naturalized power forward Jarvis Hayes was instrumental in the clutch, helping Qatar complete a come-from-behind 75-74 nail-biter over Japan for the solo Group B lead.
Hayes, who was in the 2003 NBA Draft that also included Lebron James and Carmelo Anthony and was the 10th overall pick by New Jersey, hit six of the Qataris final eight points that had them coming back from several eight-point deficits.
“The experience of these guys brought us the win. You’ve got to feel fortunate when you shoot just 36 percent from the floor and you get the win,” said Qatar coach Tom Wisman, who called the shots for Japan in the last Asian championship played in China.