TAIPEI: A big improvement, but still short nonetheless.
The Philippines improved by leaps and bounds in just its second outing in the 31st William Jones Cup but fell to its second straight loss just the same, an 86-77 beating at the hands of Chinese-Taipei-A Sunday night at the boisterous Hsinchuang gymnasium here.
After trailing by as many as 19 points in the first half, the Filipinos played the way expected of them, pulling level twice in the fourth period before falling prey to a hot shooting Taiwan crew in the stretch.
Though it was their second straight loss, the Filipinos walked out of the coliseum with their heads held high this time, unlike in the inaugurals on Saturday when they were blown off the floor by defending champion Jordan, 59-90.
Overall, I think this is an improvement from the game last night,” Philippine coach Yeng Guiao told reporters when asked to compare his boys from the Jordan game which almost became the biggest rout of the tournament.
“Good part about it (game against the Taiwanese) is that the guys put up a good fight toward the third and fourth quarter,” he added. “We just couldn’t get the breaks.
“We’re still having some problems with officiating,” Guiao continued. “There’s a big adjustment from the rules we have in the Philippines from the Fiba rules. There were so many traveling violations called against us. We couldn’t adjust to those calls and it cost us the game.” From a 72-all game, the Taiwanese knocked down three straight triples, the last by 6-foot-10 center Tien Lei, for an 84-72 lead heading into the final 73 seconds, and this all but took the fight out of the Filipinos.
Despite losing for the second straight night, the Filipinos played much better as they got five players to score in twin digits, led by the 15 of point guard Willie Miller, who came off the bench this time.
Against Jordan, only Asi Taulava finished in double figures with 10, and the Philippines bombed out of that game as early as the second period after trailing by as large as 24 points.
Kerby Raymundo and James Yap drilled in 12 each, while Arwind Santos and Japeth Aguilar had 10 apiece, with Aguilar, the 6-foot-10 son of former Northern Cement center Peter, wowing the crowd with his work ethic and two thunderous jams.
Aguilar’s tomahawk slam over two Taiwanese defenders with 6:46 left tied the game for the first time at 68 before Raymundo had two free throws off Tien with 3:42 remaining for the game’s last deadlock at 72.
But Chan Chie-fen, a guard, hit two charities off the final foul of Yap , touching off a telling 12-0 spurt capped by the last of Tien’s four triples for that 12-point lead that the Filipinos didn’t come close to overhauling anymore. The latest loss all but eliminated the Philippines from the title picture since this tournament does not play a championship game and awards the title to the squad with the best record after a single round elimination.
Next up for the Philippines is Kazakhstan at 3 p.m. today even as two other sides share the lead with the host squad after Lebanon and Korea pounded out close victories earlier.
The Taiwanese hit 11 of their 14 triples in the first half to build that early lead which kept the Philippines out of synch. They closed out the half with a 15-point margin and looked ready to deal the Philippine another sound beating.
Chinese-Taipei missed the services of three big men, including 7-foot center Tseng Wen-ting, the other half of its deadly duo together with Tien. Tseng has been in an out of the national roster because of a knee injury.
