Gilas enters final, books trip to FIBA-Asia

JAKARTA, Indonesia – Smart Gilas Pilipinas threw its full weight and might against a hapless Indonesian side, fashioning out a 94-54 rout to clinch a berth in the coming FIBA-Asia Championship in Wuhan, China and make the finals of the ninth Southeast Asian Basketball Association Championship at the Brittama Arena here late Friday.

Learning from their game against the Malaysians where they needed a decisive fourth-quarter run to hack out a 97-71 win, the Nationals didn’t leave anything to chance, totally outclassing the Indonesians for a second win in the tourney.

“This win is very important because it assures us of entry to the Fiba-Asia tourney,” said Smart Gilas Pilipinas coach Rajko Toroman referring to the Asian joust on Sept. 15-25 which serves as the regional qualifier for the 2012 London Olympics.

The Nationals clobbered the Indons though playing with only nine players following the early departure of Marcio Lassiter.

The Fil-Am forward flew home ahead of the team to have his back injury checked right away.

Smart Gilas is also missing here the services of PBA players Asi Taulava of Meralco, Dondon Hontiveros of Air21 and Kelly Williams and Jimmy Alapag of Talk n Text.

The Nationals, however, easily coped with a resolute defense and a run-and-gun attack.

Chris Lutz came through with a game-high 20 points including 14 from the foul line while Japeth Aguilar put on a show with five slam dunks highlighted by a thunderous jam from an alley-oop pass from Mac Baracael.

Dylan Ababou had significant contribution with 13 points, five steals, five assists and two rebounds.

Naturalized player Marcus Douthit didn’t need to work extra hard, chipping in 11 points, five rebounds and two blocks.

“We played great defensively. We were aggressive and tough on defense, and that was really the key to this win,” said Toroman.

Late in the night, Smart Gilas Pilipinas bamboozled a listless Singapore, 106-51, to complete a three-game sweep of the elimination and formally clinch a title match with the winner between Indonesia and Malaysia, which was being played at press time.