Gilas whips Iran, finishes a decent 4th in Jones Cup
TAIPEI – Gilas Pilipinas completed a gruelling nine-game tournament here last night, getting high marks from national coach Chot Reyes in its final buildup for the bigger goal ahead – win the gold medal in next month’s Southeast Asian Games in Kuala Lumpur.
The Gilas Cadets, the youngest, probably the rawest team ever assembled, showed up their Iranian counterparts, 90-82, for a respectable fourth-place finish at the close of the 2017 Jones Cup at the Taipei Peace Basketball Gymnasium.
The Filipinos banked on a better ball rotation, a 31-percent three-point shooting and the big game of Mike Myers at the paint as they upstaged a team the Philippines has had a fierce rivalry with in the last few years.
Both teams made a worthy showing with their Team B in the 10-nation, nineday meet where Canada, Lithuania and South Korea finished first, second and third, respectively.
Myers piled up 21 points and 11 rebounds, Matthew Wright rifled in three treys and finished with 20 markers while Christian Standhardinger contributed 13 points and four rebounds in the game where cameras focused briefly on NBA star Kyrie Irving while the Filipinos were putting the final touch on the win.
Gilas coach Chot Reyes believed they had a worthy trip here.
“Overall, it’s a good tournament for us. Not only we’re leaving a good impression, I thought we represented the program very well with these guys who are a very young group,” said Reyes.
“Considering we’re only in the third week together, I thought we put up a job that speaks well of the program,” added Reyes, who steered the team to wins over Taipei A, Taipei B, Japan, Iraq, India and Iran versus losses to Canada, Lithuania and Korea.
Iran wound up with a 4-5 card, the same mark logged by the Iraq team Gilas Pilipinas will meet in the first round of the FIBA Asia Cup in Lebanon next month.
The Gilas program chief believed they achieved the goal to prepare the Gilas team they’re sending to the SEA Games.
“Definitely, we’re able to give a lot of experience, a lot of minutes to a lot of guys in the SEAG lineup. I’m pretty sure it will help,” said Reyes.
Wright, Jio Jalalon and RR Pogoy are likely to make the Gilas 12 for the Asia Cup that Reyes and the SBP officials are to finalize today.
“We’ll have a lunch meeting with MVP (SBP patron Manny V. Pangilinan) upon our return to Manila. We have until lunch time on the 25th (tomorrow) to submit the lineup,” said Reyes.
The Filipinos got off to an 11-2 opening roll but they needed a strong fourthquarter start to eventually take the fight out of the Iranians in the game where Irving – a special guest of Nike Taipei – was briefly mobbed by fans in the 5:10 mark of the final canto.
Reyes rued they could’ve put in a better ending to their Jones Cup stint.
“I thought that’s the worst game we played the whole tournament. Versus Korea, we shot poorly but we defended very well and I thought we played a very good game even if we lost,” said Reyes.
“Same thing in our games against Canada and Lithuania. I thought this is our worst. Maybe the players were tired, they’ve kind of overlooked Iran or overconfident. I thought we played below our potential,” Reyes added.