CHANGSHA – Gilas Pilipinas expectedly tore apart Gulf region lightweight Kuwait, 110-64, last night and advanced to the next round where the Nationals face sterner tests in the 2015 FIBA Asia Championships here.
Titleholder Iran, Japan and India await Team Philippines in the second round, which is a fight for positioning among the Iranians, the Filipinos and the Japanese for top seeding in their group in the knockout round.
The fourth and last playoff berth in the group could be a tossup among India, Palestine and Hong Kong.
The 11-day competition takes a break Saturday. The Philippines plays either Japan or India at the resumption of play on Sunday, depending on the result of the Hong Kong-Palestine game that was being played as of posting time.
The Nationals worked on a devastating 26-0 run in the first half versus the Kuwaitis and coasted to another emphatic victory following their 101-50 mangling of Hong Kong the previous day.
It was a lopsided match marred by a near fight towards the end with rugged Kuwaiti forward Abdulaziz going wild after absorbing a retaliatory hit from Ranidel de Ocampo.
“We’re in a war. He hit a lot of my teammates and I thought I have to protect them. I retaliated when he hit me in the balls,” said De Ocampo.
“We’ve put ourselves in a position to fight for a place in the knockout round. We have a job cut out for us but I expect our team to rise to the challenge,” said Gilas coach Tab Baldwin.
Except for the unfortunate incident at the finish, Baldwin felt they were able to do what they set out to do versus the Kuwaitis.
“We played well enough in the first quarter. The group off the bench did a great job early in the game and they sort of come in with a lot energy and good focus,” said Baldwin.
“We had an opportunity to run a few things that we want to run, look at some system stuff that maybe we haven’t used very much. We saw what we wanted to see, we know where we need to improve and now we’re looking forward (to the second round),” he added.
Terrence Romeo, the Gilas sensation in the recent Jones Cup, finally hit his stride, top scoring with 19 points spiked by three-of-three 3-point shooting.
Jayson Castro, Calvin Abueva and JC Intal contributed at least 10 points, Dondon Hontiveros, Asi Taulava and De Ocampo added nine apiece while Andray Blatche and Sonny Thoss chipped in eight each in a well-balanced scoring.
Even then, Baldwin said they’re not yet consistent and instead erratic nearing the KO stage.
“If erratic is the form that I was looking for, then we’re pretty well placed right there. But we’ve enough good positives enough to know that we can play well,” said Baldwin.
“We came here to make sure we make it to the second round, and we’re in the second round now. We need to do well in the second round to put ourselves in the quarterfinals. It’s all going to be tough games. We’re in a position to play these tough games,” he added.
The scores:
Philippines 110 – Romeo 19, Castro 16, Abueva 10, Intal 10, Taulava 9, De Ocampo 9, Hontiveros 9, Blatche 8, Thoss 8, Ganuelas 6, Norwood 4, Pingris 2.
Kuwait 64 – Alshammari 15, Alsaed 13, Abu 12, Alhamidi 9, Borhamah 7, Aljumah 5, Hasan 3, Alshammari 0, Marzouq 0, Alzafiri 0.
Quarterscores: 34-11, 55-27, 87-48, 110-64