Nationals yield to hot-shooting Syrians

MANILA, Philippines - Smart Gilas Pilipinas failed to stop Al Wahda of Syria’s rain of triples in the clutch and took a heartbreaking 89-91 loss in the 22nd Dubai Invitational basketball tournament at the Al Ahli Club gym yesterday.

The Syrians’ three imports torched the Filipinos with a combined output of 60 points, including three triples in the last two minutes to drop the Filipinos to 2-2.

Despite the loss, Smart Gilas still advanced to the quarterfinal round as they wound up No. 3 for a clash with Group A No. 2 Hoops of Lebanon.

“It was a tough loss,” said Jude Roque, one of RP coach Rajko Toroman’s assistants. “Smart Gilas lost a hard-fought game as their three reinforcements hit three straight treys in the last two minutes of the game.”

Naturalization candidate Marcus Douthit scored 24 points and pulled down 14 rebounds while JV Casio scattered 17 points but the Filipinos just had no answer to Al Wahda’s prolific troika.

“We’ll be having another one-day rest to think about what happened and plan for our quarterfinal game against Hoops of Lebanon,” said Smart Gilas team manager Frankie Lim.

“But the team remains in high spirits and we’re confident of our chances. We just have to really prepare and learn from our matches in the group stages,” he added.