Gilas tops Japan, advances in FIBA Asia WC qualifiers

MANILA, Philippines — Gilas Pilipinas revisited the venue of its glorious 2013 FIBA Asia campaign and electrified it once again with a proud performance leading to an 89-84 repeat win over Team Japan and an early passage to the next round of the FIBA Asia World Cup Qualifiers.

Almost all Gilas players came out and had their shining moments as Team Phl completed a two-game sweep of Japan and eased the pain of a 68-84 loss to Team Australia in Melbourne Thursday.

A capacity crowd at the MOA Arena cheered Gilas on as the Nationals overcame a lethargic start and Japan’s determined chase at endgame to nail a third win in four games in Group B play.

The home fans erupted to a deafening roar as Jayson Castro drained an awkward one-hander off Ira Brown that eventually finished off the stubborn Japanese side.

With the win, the Filipinos (3-1) joined the Aussies (4-0) in an early entry into the next round where they are likely to play Iran, Kazakhstan and Qatar.

The Japanese, meanwhile, dropped to a more delicate spot at 0-4.

Gilas coach Chot Reyes said fatigue from their Australia trip came into play, but they hung on.

“It’s our ability not to give up and lose hope,” said Reyes in bucking an early 16-point deficit at 4-20.

“But we kind of expected that we would struggle coming off a difficult trip from Melbourne via Sydney. We knew we’re going to have a hard time as Japan would fight for their lives,” Reyes also said. “They jumped on us. But we didn’t panic.”

He made special mention of his second group – Kiefer Ravena, June Mar Fajardo, Troy Rosario, Calvin Abueva and RR Pogoy – that got them into the game right at the end of the opening quarter, 21-22.

From there, the Gilas players took turns to deliver the goods as Team Phl zoomed to a 34-22 lead and gallantly warded off repeated uprisings by the Japanese.

Andray Blatche came up with his most productive performance in the qualifiers and led Gilas with 18 points, 16 rebounds, four assists, two steals and one block against five turnovers.

Rosario and Ravena contributed 14 and 13 points and were the biggest keys in Gilas’ amazing 30-2 roll from 4-20 down.

Ravena, however, deflected the credit to Blatche and Castro.

“Ang laking bagay that you play with the best. One big thing we missed during the Australia game was Castro – a great finisher. And whatever you say, malaking bagay talaga si Andray Blatche,” said Ravena.

Gilas had lost a big lead and facing tremendous pressure when Castro took matters into his hands in their critical possession with 31.5 seconds left.

He eluded defender Ryusei Shinoyama then also beat Japan’s last line of defense provided by Brown, throwing a looper that hit the mark off the board.

And thus the Filipinos survived what could have been a heartbreaker.

The opening half was marked by wild momentum swings.

A relaxed start dragged Gilas to an early huge deficit before the Nationals buckled down to work to seize control on a huge 30-2 rampage in a seven-minute stretch bridging the first two quarters.

The scores:

Philippines 89 – Blatche 18, Rosario 14, Ravena 13, Norwood 8, Castro 8, Abueva 8, Fajardo 7, Pogoy 6, Aguilar 5, Jalalon 2, Wright 0.

Japan 84 – Hiejima 23, Brown 16, Tanaka 12, Shinoyama 9, Tsuji 8, Ota 6, Takeuchi 5, Uto 3, Harimoto 2, Furukawa 0, Hashimoto 0.

Quarterscores: 21-22, 46-41, 72-61, 89-84