Chot rues dirty tactics despite Gilas victory
TAIPEI — Gilas Pilipinas matched Iraq’s physicality, but cost Fil-German Christian Standhardinger an ejection for crossing the line that marred their 84-75 win in the William Jones Cup last night at the Taipei Peace Basketball Gymnasium here.
Import Mike Myers led Gilas Pilipinas 16 points and 18 rebounds, Kiefer Ravena added 13 points, Roger Pogoy had 12 points and Carl Bryan Cruz contributed 10 points apiece to bounce back from Wednesday’s 83-72 loss to South Korea.
Gilas improved to 4-2, forging a tie for third with the South Koreans, who earlier in the day absorbed a 98-72 defeat to Canada that kept the Philippines in contention to produce a medal finish in the annual tournament.
Canada is on top at 5-1, followed by 4-1 Lithuania, which was playing
Games Today (Taipei Peace Basketball Gymnasium) 11 a.m. – Canada vs India 1 p.m. – South Korea vs Japan 3 p.m. – Philippines vs Lithuania 5 p.m. – Iran vs Iraq 7 p.m. – Taipei-Blue vs Taipei-White
Chinese-Taipei at presstime and Gilas’ opponent in today’s 3 p.m. match.
Coach Chot Reyes, though, was far from pleased with the way his players carried themselves against the Iraqis.
“I thought we were able to do well (against Iraq), but I don’t like the other stuff,” said Reyes, who was so upset with Standhardinger that he ordered him to return to the locker room, though the 6-foot-8 was thrown out anyway because of two technical fouls.
“There’s a fine line between being tough and playing dirty. That’s not how Gilas play… I don’t care if we lose the game. We’re going to be strong and physical, but we’ll not cross the line,” added Reyes.
Gilas led by as many as 18