Not bad for a first game.
Philippine team coach Chot Reyes gave his squad a passing grade in its first official game last night after the Filipinos turned back Jordan, 88-78, in first day of action in the 34th William Jones Cup International basketball tournament.
Getting together just two weeks ago, the Filipinos played surprisingly well and showed vast potential to share opening day honors with Iran and Korea in the nine-nation event that is considered one of the most prestigious in Asia.
“Except for the turnovers, which we had quite a few, it was a pretty impressive game for us,” Reyes said. “For a team that played competitively for the first time, yes, I am impressed.”
Marcus Douthit, the Philippines’ naturalized 6-foot-10 center, scored nine points in the latter part of the fourth period and helped put the Jordanians away. He finished with 17 points and 14 rebounds despite being saddled by fouls early.
Douthit’s biggest basket came with 44 seconds left, when he finished a 3-on-2 break with a two-handed dunk off 7-foot-2 relief center Mahmoud Abdeen to the delight of a huge opening day crowd at the Taipei Physical Education College gym here.
“Obviously, there’s still a lot to work on and we can only get better as the days go by,” added Reyes. “They’ll know the little nuances of the offense. They’ll only figure it out when they play a lot more.”
Gary David, the Powerade scoring machine in the Philippine Basketball Association, showed why he is who he is back home, scoring 14 points coming off the bench, playing just 14 minutes and taking only nine attempts from the field.
Jordan entered a tall, young team that was backstopped by naturalized guard Rasheim Wright, and it easily erased an 11-point first quarter deficit to ease out front by three at the half.
But Reyes played the second half like a real game, shortening his rotation unlike in the first half where he was already able to field all 12 allowable players.
“It was a good first game. We’re using this tournament to learn to play together,” Douthit said. “I think our leadership and experience on the floor definitely prevailed.”
“I think my team is very tired because of the long trip we took from (Jordan),” Jordan coach Murad Barakat said.
Jordan left behind Zaid Abbas and Sam Douglas, the reason, Mubarak said, is that they are also investing on the future.
Next up for the Filipinos is Taipei-B at 3 p.m. on Sunday and Team Philippines is again installed as the logical choice with its second assignment composed mainly of the host country’s youth team.
Taipei-B will be coming off a lopsided 83-109 loss to a talented Korean team that barely utilized two American imports Garrett Stutz and Juan Pattillo.
Stutz and Pattillo still combined for 30 points despite playing just a combined 37 minutes.
Iran, the former Fiba-Asia champion, also flexed its might and rolled back Lebanon, 89-74.
Without Hamed Haddadi, the NBA veteran with the Memphis Grizzlies, the Iranians were still too much for the Lebanese to handle with the veteran power forward Hamed Afagh leading the way with 23 points.
Jarrid Famous, the former Meralco import in the PBA, led the Lebanese with 18 points like Elie Stephan.
Philippines turns back Jordan
