Philippines beats HK, gets Group E top spot as Qatar upsets Chinese-Taipei

The plan was for Marcus Douthit to cool his heels and the others in the Gilas Pilipinas nucleus to take it easy.
Instead, the Filipinos needed to dig deep in the trenches after getting more than what they expected from lightweight Hong Kong before pounding out a 67-55 victory that formalized Team Philippines’ top-ranking in Group E of the 27th Fiba-Asia Championship.
Starting out flat and ultimately playing what could be their worst game here, the Filipinos struggled to find their mark offensively and had lapses on defense, trailing by as many as 10 in the first half before putting it together in the second to grind out the win at the Mall of Asia Arena.
And Team Philippines needed spurt after spurt to put Hong Kong away and close out its preliminary assignments with a 4-1 record.
But before the Filipinos encountered their troubles on the floor, Qatar set the tables up for the Philippines to claim No. 1 ranking earlier in the day when it upset erstwhile undefeated Chinese-Taipei, 71-68.
“I think I can run for president of the Philippines right now, don’t you think,” Qatar head coach Rob Wisman joked around with local reporters, knowing the joy he and his charges gave this basketball-crazy republic.
“I’m just so proud of my players and the effort they gave out today,” Wisman continued. “Our mindset coming into the game was to win by 16 points and be No. 1 (in the group). We got it to 12 at one point but didn’t have enough gas.
“Overall, I just can’t ask for anymore from my players.”
Yasseen Musa, a 20-year veteran of the Qatari national team, scored 20 points and had a tournament-high 19 rebounds for Qatar, which wound up bagging No. 3 seed.
The Qataris took a 68-56 lead midway in the fourth period only to go on a drought and allow the Taiwanese to even it up at 68 following a 12-0 run.
But Daoud Mosa Daoud drove the lane for a layup and Jarvis Hayes split his free throws off Chen Shih-Chieh for what turned out to be the marginal points for the Qataris.
Taipei was slowed down by an injury to the sharp-shooting Lin Chih-chieh, who reinjured his right ankle in a 79-76 win over Japan on Tuesday. Lin played 19 minutes and was scoreless.
“Their defense did not give our shooters a chance,” said Taiwanese national coach Hsu Chin-che.
Chinese-Taipei, the Philippines and Qatar all ended up with 4-1 records, but a 10-point win by the Filipinos over the Qataris on Tuesday gave them superior quotient, a plus-five, after they lost to the Taiwanese by just five.
Taipei was second with a plus-two, while the Qataris were third with a minus-seven.
Jordan finished No. 4 in Group E after turning back Japan, 65-56, in the day’s first game.
The pairings for the first round of the KO stages – the quarterfinals – will thus be the Philippines clashing with Kazakhstan; Chinese-Taipei colliding with China, Qatar locking horns with South Korea and Iran slugging it out with Jordan on Friday.
Taipei has never beaten a Chinese A-Team in its basketball history, but the Taiwanese, who also enlisted the services of a naturalized player for the first time in Quincy Davis, are hoping that Lin heals in time for them to have a decent crack at a breakthrough.
China, meanwhile, finished No. 3 in its group after an 88-66 decision of Bahrain where it played Yi Jianlian for the first time in its last three matches.
Yi, who saw action for the Milwaukee Bucks and the Washington Wizards in the NBA, is nursing a slightly pulled hamstring and a groin injury but was allowed to get a feel of the game with a 12-minute exposure.
He scored 12 points and had six rebounds as China closed out with a 3-2 record.
Iran remained untouched so far in the 15-nation tournament, scoring a thorough 85-53 mangling of Kazakhstan that kept the Kazakhs winless in the second round of the classification.
Hamed Hadadi, the Iranians’ talented center, tossed in 16 points and had nine rebounds in just eight minutes with Hamed Afagh shooting 15 in just 20 minutes of playing time.
Iran is undefeated in five games and remains the heavy favorite to win this tournament.
The Iranian coaching staff also played Nikka Bahrami sparingly, using the creative shooter for just 17 minutes.
Should the Philippines win over the Kazakhs, it will advance opposite the winner of the South Korea-Qatar game in the Final Four where a slot to the World Championship in Madrid next year – the Filipinos’ ultimate goal – will be at stake.
Douthit hurt his right knee after getting an accidental hit in an 80-70 win over Qatar on Tuesday, and coach Chot Reyes admitted that he was supposed to rest his naturalized center against Hong Kong to let the bruise heal.
“The plan was to play him (Douthit) for (just) 10 minutes, and let the other big men get their minutes and the feel (of the competition)” Reyes said later. “But the way the game unfolded, I played him otherwise.
“There’s no such thing as a sure win in sports,” continued the firebrand coach. “We found a way to grind out the victory. We started out flat and Marcus played more minutes to give us a lift.”
Douthit was on the floor for all but eight minutes and contributed 13 points, eight rebounds and the intimidating presence inside.
Gabe Norwood and Jeff Chan were also big offensively together with LA Tenorio, the Philippines’ starting point guard who completed back-to-back three-point plays late in the third quarter that put the Philippines ahead to stay, 44-39, with 1:16 left.
Jason Castro tossed in 11 points and was the fourth man in twin digits for Reyes, who broke at least one play board in the first quarter in his disgust at how the way his wards started out.
The Philippines trailed, 0-7, getting its first basket only at the 6:32 mark, before trailing by 27-17 early in the second period and closing out the half staring at a 33-28 deficit.