Hosts pin 2nd loss on RP team aspirants

The hard-luck Philippine aspirants basketball team suffered a second heartbreaking loss in a row as host Chinese-Taipei held on to a 77-72 win after squandering a 14-point lead in the eight-nation Jones Cup at the Taipei Physical Education College Gymnasium in Taiwan last Sunday night.

National coach Chot Reyes blamed himself for failing to map out a precise play on the final possession and said the players had nothing to be ashamed of with their performance.

Reyes called his last timeout with the hosts ahead, 75-72, time down to 11 seconds. He sent in five three-point shooters—John Arigo, Joseph Yeo, Ronald Tubid, Nino Canaleta and Ranidel de Ocampo—with the intention of sending the game into overtime. But as Yeo started his drive to hand off to Canaleta, the ball went loose and Chinese-Taipei recovered to score a layup at the buzzer.

"I told the players after the game I should have come up with a better final possession play," said Reyes. "Once more, our players refused to quit, putting up a gallant effort. Every time Chinese-Taipei threatened to pull away, we came back. We went into a very difficult situation and almost pulled off a victory, had a few calls gone our way in the end."

Reyes said while it’s not his habit to blame officiating for a loss, he pointed out the discrepancies in free throws and fouls.

Chinese-Taipei shot 17-of-22 from the line and had 11 fouls, compared to the Philippines’ 5-of-5 charities and 21 fouls.

US coach Mike Jarvis, known for his stint at St. John’s University in the NCAA Division I, congratulated the Filipino squad when the game ended.

"Mike went down on his knees in front of me, marveling at how I was able to keep my cool and not get called for a technical foul in the face of that kind of officiating," said Reyes. "I told him we expected it but it still didn’t make it any easier to take."

The aspirants raced to a 22-17 lead in the first quarter as 6-10 center Tseng Wen Ting picked up two early fouls and was benched most of the way. Yeo and Tubid conspired to build the margin to eight before Chinese-Taipei caught up with free throws to take the half, 40-35.

Chinese-Taipei led, 66-52, with seven minutes left when the Philippines unloaded a 10-0 bomb with Yancy and Ranidel de Ocampo, Ali Peek, Arigo and L. A. Tenorio, celebrating his birthday, on the floor.

Denok Miranda and Tubid checked in to cut the deficit to two, 68-66, with 2:50 left. Tseng then converted a three-point play but Ranidel de Ocampo countered with a triple. Chinese-Taipei came back with two free throws, 73-69, with 57 ticks to go. De Ocampo knocked down another trey to trim the gap to a point, 73-72, with 32 seconds remaining. Tien Lei scored on a difficult drive to push Chinese-Taipei on top, 75-72, and the Philippines went blank for good.

Reyes said despite the loss, the aspirants achieved several goals, including holding star scorer Chen Hsin An to six points, winning the battle of the boards, 40-30, and shooting close to 50 percent. Chen has played the last two years in the American Basketball Association and once attended the Sacramento Kings training camp.

"Our approach to the game was control," said Reyes. "We didn’t want to engage Chinese-Taipei in an all-out running game, opting instead to run selectively, but with greater emphasis on good shot selection. We knew we had to shoot better than the 37 percent we shot against Qatar if we were to have a chance. We understand we were in for a difficult game versus the home team but instead of dreading it, we talked about relishing the situation and actually growing and becoming better players regardless of the result."

The Philippines" next contest is against Korea but Reyes said reinforcements Mike Cortez, Sonny Thoss and Dondon Hontiveros are doubtful for the game because they’ll arrive from Manila only two hours before the tip-off.

The US, Chinese-Taipei and Qatar are on top of the standings so far with 2-0 records. Australia and Korea are 1-1. Winless in two starts are Kazakhstan, Japan and the Philippines.

The US crushed Australia"s under-19 national team, 70-51, and the Korea University All-Stars, 93-89, to emerge the early favorite.

Chinese-Taipei opened its campaign with a resounding 113-70 romp over Japan’s under-24 national team.