RP hones up on defense, rips Malaysia

Ranged against a less-fancied opponent and bracing for a tougher stint in the semis, the Philippines put emphasis on defense and still came away with a runaway 91-43 victory over Malaysia yesterday to sweep the elimination round of the fourth South East Asia Basketball Association Men’s Championship at the Rizal Memorial Coliseum.

The Filipinos scored less than what they did in their first two games, when they beat the Singaporeans, 112-70, and the Vietnamese, 130-46, but they came out quite satisfied with their defensive plays they hope to apply against tougher rivals in the next round.

"We didn’t score that well today because we concentrated more on our defense. It’s not yet perfect but we’ll try to improve this in time for the semis," said RP team coach Boycie Zamar.

No Malaysian wound up scoring nine points and the Filipinos underscored their tough defensive stand by coming up with nine shot blocks, three courtesy of skipper Romel Adducul, who also topscored for the hosts with 15 points.

The Filipinos will face the loser of the Indonesia-Thailand game at 3:30 p.m.

The Thais and the Indons are currently tied on top in Group B with a win apiece, both at Brunei’s expense, 101-37, and 102-42, respectively.

Zamar said he would need some adjustments in their match against Indonesia or Thailand since they are far more superior than those it faced in the elims.

"We need to come up with adjustments to beat either of them," said Zamar. "Pero kahit sino sa kanila kaya namin."