Injured Blatche, Gilas struggle past Japan 5

CHANGSHA – Gilas Pilipinas overcame an injury to Andray Blatche and a Japan team that just won’t give up, grinding out a 73-66 win to close in on the knockout stage of the 2015 FIBA Asia Championship at the Changsha Social Work College here last night.

Blatche scored 10 points on one good foot in the last seven minutes with Ranidel de Ocampo, Calvin Abueva and Jayson Castro contributing crucial buckets in the crunch as the Nationals thwarted the Japanese and, thus caught up with Palestine at second place with their identical 2-1 win-loss slates in Group E.

The Philippines takes on unbeaten defending champion Iran starting at 11:45 a.m. today. (Related story on Page 22)

With Gilas holding a precarious lead, 69-66, in the final minute, Blatche tipped in his own miss then Castro drained two pressure-laden charities as the Nationals kept their streak heading to their keenly awaited showdown with Iran at 11:45 a.m. today.

“We’re happy to come out on top especially as we have a mountain to climb (today),” said Gilas coach Tab Baldwin.

“It was everything we expected to be – a tough game. Japan is getting better every year. They played like a good unit. They played like an intricate unit, not just with their system, but their character. But overall, we did a reasonably good job against them,” Baldwin added.

Blatche sustained an ankle sprain at the start of the second quarter, hampering the team’s rotation the rest of the way.

But the naturalized player came back in the last nine minutes of the game, bucking his injury to help Gilas pull through in the critical match.

“I definitely played through pain. I had to help them fight and get this win. We’re in the second round and every game counts for us to get where we want to be. I had to fight through it,” said Blatche.

Though limited to 22 minutes of action, the nine-year NBA veteran churned out a game-high 18 points and a team-best 10 rebounds in the low-scoring setto.

“We don’t ride on one horse. Andray’s important in the makeup of our team, but we have a team capable of plugging holes. That’s our belief. We train that way,” said Baldwin on what he felt as Blatche limped out of the court two minutes into the second quarter and again just as the second half had started.

“I guess all of us made a good job stepping up in this game. It’s not by a big margin but a win is a win,” said Ranidel de Ocampo, standing as the team’s anchor at the frontline when Blatche was on the bench.

“As what Ranidel said, all the guys stepped up. The defensive guys stepped up on defense and our offensive unit stepped up when they needed to. Where like an NFL team out there tonight,” said Baldwin.

“We had a tense moment, with our old same concerns from our training camp. Attacking the zone was a concern. Getting the rebound was a concern. We have to concentrate on those points,” Baldwin also said.

With Blatche on the bench, De Ocampo and guards Castro and Terrence Romeo carried the scoring cudgels for Gilas, and they wound up with a combined output of 37 markers.

De Ocampo and Romeo fired two triples each in a decisive attack Gilas launched to wipe out a nine-point deficit and build their own nine-point lead at 52-43 towards the end of the third.

But the Japanese won’t fade away, going to Makoto Hiehima, Ryoma Hashimoto, Ryumo Ono and Joji Takeuchi as they patiently hung around before eventually catching up at 64 with time down to 2:32.

From there, De Ocampo buried his third triple in the night then Gilas found a big break with Japan turning the ball over in the ensuing play.

Then came a big play by Calvin Abueva, beating out 6-foot-10 Takeuchi for an offensive rebound then going to the stripe for two foul shots that made it 69-64 for the Filipinos with time down to 1:23.