Gilas drubs Taiwan in Jones Cup
MANILA – Gilas Pilipinas defeated the two Chinese- Taipei teams i n the 2017 William Jones Cup.
The Philippine men’s basketball team flirted with disaster over t he l owly Chinese-Taipei White before escaping 93-82 on clutch hits by Matthew Wright and Jio Jalalon on Monday.
On Sunday evening, Ilonggo Kiefer Ravena came up with clutch baskets in the end to help Gilas score an 88-72 win over Chinese-Taipei Blue, the national basketball team of Taiwan.
Ravena went on to finish with 15 points and eight rebounds.
Filipino- German Christian Standhardinger had double- double 17 points and 16 rebounds for Gilas, which lost to Canada 77-90 last Saturday.
On Monday at the Taipei Peace International Basketball Hall, Gilas and Chinese-Taipei White were in a tight battle — no one was leading by double figures — until Wright and Jalalon led a huge endgame run to build the Philippines’ largest lead at 11 points.
Wright led the way with 21 points, on five 3- point conversions, while Roger Pogoy a nd Mike Myers contributed 15 and 14 points, respectively, for Gilas, which improved to a 2- 1 win- loss slate.
Ying Chun Chen finished with 17 points, while import Kyle Barone added double- double 16 points and 12 rebounds for Chinese-Taipei White, which remained winless in three games.
The Philippines is the defending champion in the annual tournament after the Mighty Sports- Pilipinas — then led mostly by American imports — dominated the field with a sweep last year./