RP hoops' brightest moment

No Asian country – not even China – has come close to eclipsing or duplicating the Philippines’ third-place finish at the World Basketball Championships in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1954.

For that reason, the Cinderella squad coached by Herminio Silva was inducted into the Philippine Sports Hall of Fame at the inaugural enshrinement rites in the Manila Hotel last Wednesday.

Three surviving players came to receive their plaques of enshrinement and cash reward of P50,000 each. They were skipper Tony Genato, Nap Flores and Florentino Bautista. Top scorer Caloy Loyzaga failed to attend – he now lives in Australia – and was represented by his daughter Bing. Standing in behalf of the late Benjamin Francisco were his wife Felicitas and son Gerard, the former PBA cager now Coca-Cola assistant team manager. Dr. Teresa Saldana-Araneta came for her father Pons.

Other players in the team were Lauro (Bay) Mumar, Bayani Amador, Rafael Barretto, Mon Manulat, Francisco (Rajah of Rebound) Rabat and Mariano Tolentino.

Genato, 81, vividly recalled the Rio de Janiero contest where the Philippines trimmed Uruguay, 67-63, to formally capture the bronze medal.

“It was a physical game and Uruguay played dirty,” said Genato. “The score was tied, 32-all, at the half. Before the start of the second half, the referees called the captains to the middle of the court. I stood for our team. The Uruguay captain complained to the referees that we were playing dirty and spoke in Spanish. He didn’t think I spoke Spanish. So I immediately interrupted, saying if they continued to play dirty, we would play dirty, too, and they better not cry about it.”

Genato’s main mission was to stop Uruguay’s hotshot Oscar Moglia who had scored 37 points in a previous game against Canada. He got the job done, limiting Moglia to nine in their matchup. Genato also contributed six points.

But it was Loyzaga who boldly stepped up to the plate and was the man of the moment. He hit 31 points to power the Philippines to the four-point win. Mumar chipped in nine, Barretto and Tolentino five apiece, Bautista and Manulat four each, Rabat two and Amador one.

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Loyzaga, now 79, emerged as the tournament’s second top scorer, compiling a total of 148 points behind only Canada’s Carl Ridd with 164. Loyzaga was one of only four players to score at least 30 in a game – the others were Ridd (37 against the Philippines), Moglia and Peru’s Rodolfo Salas Crespo (30 against Yugoslavia). King Caloy, known as the Great Difference, averaged 16.4 points in the competition and was named to the world’s mythical first five. Genato made it to the mythical 10.

In all, the Philippines posted a 6-3 record, losing twice to silver medalist Brazil (99-62, 57-41) and to champion US (56-43). The wins were over Paraguay, 64-52, Israel, 90-56, Formosa (now Chinese-Taipei), 48-38 (with Flores scoring 12 points), Canada, 83-76 (with Mumar scoring 24), France, 66-60 and Uruguay.

Curiously, not a single US player ranked among the top 10 scorers and no one from the gold medal squad ever saw action in the NBA. The “faceless” US players were Don Penwell, Kirby Minter, Dick Retherford, Richard Gott, Bill Johnson, Joe Stratton, Allen Kelley, Forrest Hamilton, Kendall Sheets, Bertram Born and Ed Solomon. Coach was Warren Womble. The cagers were mainly from the Peoria Cats club of Illinois.

Among the crack stars in the tournament were France’s seven-foot center Jean Paul Beugnot, Chile’s Victor Badria, Paraguay’s Aristides Isusi, Yugoslavia’s Bogdan Muller, Formosa’s Tong Sued Fong and Wang Yih Jiun, Israel’s Abraham Shaneir and Alfred Cohen, Brazil’s Amaury Antonio Pasos and Canada’s Doug Gresham.

No Asian referee worked in the tournament. The referees came from Italy, Peru, US, Chile, Paraguay, Brazil, Uruguay and Israel.

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There were 12 teams split into four groups in Rio de Janeiro. The top two in each group advanced to the eight-team final round. Two losses in the preliminaries meant relegation to the four-team classification round for ninth to 12th spots. The Philippines was bracketed in Group A with Brazil and Paraguay. Silva’s charges lost to Brazil but beat Paraguay to advance.

In the final round, the Philippines gave the US a huge headache with Silva’s vaunted zone defense and “freeze” tactics. The Filipinos led, 31-26, early in the second half but couldn’t hold back the taller Americans.

To clinch the bronze medal, the Philippines had to beat Canada and France in succession because of the weight of earlier losses to Brazil (twice) and the US. Repulsing Canada and France would make the final outing against Uruguay no-bearing.

The Philippines didn’t just turn back Canada and France but finished the tournament with a flourish by thrashing Uruguay, too. The Filipinos could’ve lost to Uruguay and still wound up with the bronze because Uruguay had previously bowed to Brazil, France and Canada.

The win over Canada was hair-raising as Loyzaga fouled out with 15 points, leaving Mumar, Barretto and Genato to take up the scoring cudgels. Mumar ended up with 24 points, Barretto 14 and Genato 12. Loyzaga had also fouled out in the first Brazil game. In the France outing, the game was delayed for about 10 minutes after Beugnot, the tournament’s tallest player, brought down the basket in a frightening display of strength. Loyzaga, who stood only up to Beugnot’s chin, outscored the French giant, 19-10, in their personal duel and hit 8-of-8 free throws.

It was a historic feat in Philippine basketball history. Then-President Ramon Magsaysay sent a cablegram from Manila to applaud the team in Rio de Janeiro, saying, “Congratulations for a magnificent performance... you are the country’s pride not just for your victories but for the sportsmanlike manner by which they were won. You have brought new glory and luster to the name Filipino.”