Gilas Pilipinas finishes 21st in Fiba WC

MANILA, Philippines - Gilas Pilipinas finished at 21st, ahead of Finland, Korea and Egypt, at the close of the 2014 FIBA World Cup ruled by the United States on a 129-92 thumping of Serbia in Madrid yesterday.

Puerto Rico, Iran, the Philippines and Finland all chalked up 1-4 win-loss records, but the Puerto Ricans (19th) and the Iranians (20th) wound up ahead of the Filipinos and the Finnish in the rankings with a better finish in group plays.

Puerto Rico and Iran were fifth-placers in Group C and A, respectively.

France joined the USA and Serbia in the podium as winner of the bronze-medal match over Lithuania.

Completing the final ranking was host Spain at fourth followed by Brazil, Slovenia, Turkey, Greece, Croatia, Argentina, Australia, Dominican Republic, Mexico, New Zealand, Senegal, Angola, Ukraine, Puerto Rico, Iran, the Philippines, Finland, Korea, Egypt.

In terms of average points, the Philippines ranked a strong 13th with 76.6 points per game, ahead of Angola (75), Mexico (72.2), Turkey (70.1), New Zealand (69.7), Iran (68.8), Ukraine (68.8), Finland (68.4), Dominican Republic (68), Senegal (67.3), Korea (63.2) and Egypt (62.2).

Gilas naturalized player Andray Blatche stood out in individual stats, topping the efficiency and rebounds ladder, and finishing joint second with Croatian Bojan Bogdanovic in scoring.

Had Gilas advanced to the knockout stage, Blatche would have easily made it to the Mythical Selection, that in the end, was composed of MVP winner Kyrie Irving (US),  Serbia’s Milos Teodosic, France’s Nic Batum, Team USA’s Kenneth Faried and Spain’s Pau Gasol.

Irving put in averages of 12.1 points, 3.6 assists and 1.9 steals with an impressive 61 percent shooting from the three-point land. He collected with 26 points and four assists in Team USA’s gold medal-clincher against Serbia.

The Cleveland Cavs’ star finished outside the Top 20 in the efficiency ranking topped by Blatche with 22.4 efficiency points per game with whopping norms of 21.2 points and 13.8 rebounds.

Gasol (21.7) ranked second behind Blatche, followed by Iran’s Hamed Haddadi (20.2), Angola’s Yanick Moreira (20.2), Lithuania’s Jonas Valanciunas (19.8), Senegal’s Gorgui Dieng (19.5), Mexico’s Gustavo Ayon (19.2), and Argentina’s Luis Scola (19.2).

Blatche led all comers in rebounding, collecting 12.4 and 1.4 defensive and offensive caroms for a tournament-best 13.8 total a game. Next was Haddadi (11.4), Dieng (10.7), Greek Giannis Bourousis (9.2), Scola (8.5), Valanciunas (8.4), Omar Asik of Turkey (8.4), Moreira (8.2) and Brazilian Anderson Varejao (8.0).

In scoring, Blatche was bested only by hard-nosed Puerto Rican guard JJ Barea with an average of 22.0 points. At joint second with Blatche was Bogdarovic (21.2), followed by Gasol (20), Scola (19.5) and Haddadi (18.8).