Gilas stopper Norwood eager to match up with Qatar’s Hayes

MANILA, Philippines - Gabe Norwood has been superb in his role as Gilas Pilipinas’ primary defensive stopper in the team's 27th FIBA Asia championship campaign, and the Rain or Shine standout’s mettle will be tested when he matches up with Qatar’s naturalized player Jarvis Hayes in their game Tuesday night.

Norwood has been instrumental for the Nationals, playing at least three positions providing defense, hustle and added scoring while taking on the opponent's best wing player night in and night out.

Next up for the George Mason University product is Hayes, the 10th overall pick in the star-laden 2003 NBA draft class bannered by LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh.

"It's been a while but I knew about him (Hayes) a long time ago. I think I was in college when I watched him play for the Wizards," said Norwood.

Asked on his game plan against Qatar’s 6’6 scoring ace, Norwood is unfazed and believes he just needs to do what he's been doing effectively throughout the tournament.

"I will try to make shots tough for him because that's all you can really do against scorers," said Norwood, a former Rookie of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year awardee in the PBA.

"I will watch some tapes of him and see what his strengths and weaknesses are and hopefully we can exploit them to our advantage," he added.

Norwood is not concerned of the seedings in the knockout stages for Gilas Pilipinas and believes they just need to keep on winning every game to keep their momentum.

"We need this one to keep our confidence going and keep everybody upbeat. We were really down after the loss against Taipei," said Norwood. "But I think it shows a lot about our team how we bounced back against Japan.