Gilas yields to Jordan at crunch

CHINESE TAIPEI – A hardworking Smart Gilas team held its own the final minute but succumbed to miscues and inroads of fatigue to bow to Jordan, 72-76, for its first loss in three outings in the Williams Jones Cup at the Hsinchuang Stadium in New Taipei City here yesterday.

The rigors of pulling off two tough, grueling wins against defending back-to-back champion Iran and host Chinese Taipei appeared to have taken their toll on the Nationals, who struggled against a Jordan team that came off easy victories over Malaysia and the United Arab Emirates.

Ali Jamal Zaghab, a back-up big man who assumed the starting center spot after Ayman Idais retired, surprised the Filipinos by outplaying naturalized Marcus Douthit and scoring a team-high 17 points he spiked with eight rebounds, including four offensive that resulted to easy putbacks.

The 6-10 Douthit, who came into the game averaging a league-high 23 points, got shackled by the roughhousing tactics by the Jordanians and was held to just 10 points and seven rebounds. He fouled out late in the game.

“We did a great job on Marcus Douthit, he’s a dangerous player and our big guys played tough and with great intensity and they have real purpose today (yesterday),” said Jordan’s American coach Thomas Baldwin, who took over from Portuguese mentor Mario Palma this year.

“We gave up something in the perimeter but our focus is trying to take him (Douthit) out of the game by going zone.

“It was a great win for us, I think the Phl team is a team that is getting better and better every year and as Iran found out a couple of days ago, they’re not easy to beat anymore. Now is like when you beat the Phl, you’re beating a very fast, very skilled good basketball team,” he added.

But coach Rajko Toroman threatened to walk out of the tournament if a particular “neutral referee” would continue to officiate the Phl’s games.

Toroman, a veteran on the Asian circuit who steered Iran to the Olympics and FIBA Worlds, slammed the organizers and threatened to pull out the team if neutral referee Yuen Chun Yip of Hong Kong would continue to work the games.

“If we see this referee again in our next game, we will walk out, we’ll go home,” said an furious Toroman referring to Yuen, who also officiated Smart Gilas’ 90-78 win over host Chinese Taipei Sunday night.

“This guy is killing us yesterday. How many referees you have? 16? And you put this same referee to officiate us?

“If this guy steps in, we’ll go home because his level of officiating is terrible, I never saw this kind of officiating in my whole life. He doesn’t know what is a foul and what is not a foul. I don’t have problems if he makes mistakes but this guy is purposely killing us two straight times, what is his reason?” he added.

Mark Barroca carried the fight for the Filipinos in the early going as he poured in 13 points that made up for his scoreless effort in a win over the Taiwanese while Mac Baracael and Chris Lutz took turns in filling in the slack left by Douthit, who was obviously affected by the bad calls.

Osama Daghles, a 6-5 point guard who is a veteran of the Chinese Basketball League, Zaid Abbas and comebacking Rashiem Wright, a naturalized guard, poured in 16, 14 and 12 points, respectively, although it was Jordanian-Russian Enver Soobzokov who nailed the two triples that broke the back of the Filipinos and their zone defense.

“They went zone (defense) in the fourth quarter, if Enver (Soobzokov) didn’t hit a couple of threes, we will definitely lose the game. I’m very happy he nailed those three-pointers, those were the difference,” said Baldwin.

JV Casio kept the Filipinos with a pair of clutch triples, including one with a little over a minute to go that trimmed the deficit to just a point, 73-74.

Smart Gilas regained possession but Lassiter stepped out of bounds with 39 seconds to go, paving the way for Daghles’ two insurance charities.

The Filipinos were also outrebounded by the Jordanians, 27-39, including 24 on the offensive end by the latter that led to several follow up opportunities.

The Jordanians started out strong by dominating the boards but the Filipinos recovered grounds and forced a series of lead changes before the former regained control, 21-18, at the end of the first period.

The Filipinos went into a 12-3 spree at the start of the second quarter to seize a 30-24 lead, their biggest in the half.

Jordan though went into a 10-4 tear to go into the break with a 34-32 edge.

The Filipinos, meanwhile, hope to bounce back as they play the winless Malaysians at 3 p.m. today before tangling with the dangerous South Koreans at 3 p.m. Wednesday.

Smart Gilas will then collide with winless United Arab Emirates at 3 p.m. on Thursday before closing out its elimination round campaign against Japan at 5 p.m. on Friday.

The semifinal round is scheduled on Saturday while the championship and battle for third place on Sunday.