Punches mar Gilas 5 romp
Filipinos overwhelm Kuwaitis
CHANGSHA CITY, China—The only thing dramatic in Gilas Pilipinas’ 110-64 rout of Kuwait on Friday night at the end of the Filipinos’ first-round schedule in the Fiba Asia Championship was the near bench-emptying incident with under a minute left.
Otherwise, the Filipinos were in complete control, with coach Tab Baldwin having the luxury of resting his aces and giving the role
players valuable playing time as they take a winning feeling into the second round where the competition will be several notches higher.
The Filipinos’ domination of the Kuwaitis was set aside for a while with 48 seconds to go when Ranidel de Ocampo and Abdulaziz Alhamadi got entangled in a play that left the Kuwait forward bloodied in the kisser.
Alhamadi refused to be pacified, even threatening the referee who didn’t call a foul in the play.
“Your player started it, when he hit our player and the score (lead of the Philippines) was already very big,” said Kuwaiti coach Khaled Yousef during the postgame press conference, pointing a finger at De Ocampo.
Still, it was another overpowering show by the Filipinos, coming on the heels of their 101-50 whipping of Hong Kong on Thursday.
Terrence Romeo snapped out of his shooting slump and tossed in 19 points, Jason Castro added 16 and every man in Tab Baldwin’s bench contributed offensively.
The team takes a break on Saturday to await its first second-round foe.
“He (Alhamadi) had been giving out cheap shots to everyone,” De Ocampo said in Filipino. “I took it upon myself to protect my teammates. We’re in a war here. He was dishing it out and he should have been ready to take shots as well.”
Andray Blatche contributed eight points and as many rebounds in just 18 minutes.
“I don’t have enough to say about the game,” Baldwin said. “It’s kind of an uneventful game in a basketball standpoint.”
The Philippines will advance to the next round together with tormentor Palestine and Hong Kong and will join qualifiers coming from Group A to form Group D.
There, the Filipinos will be up against defending champion Iran, Japan and India, with the final positions to be known after the end of the heavy schedule on Friday. The scores: GILAS PILIPINAS 110— Romeo 19, Castro 16, Abueva 10, Intal 10, Taulava 9, De ocampo 9, Hontiveros 9, Blatche 8, Thoss 8, Ganuelas 6, Norwood 4, Pingris 2.
KUWAIT 64— Alshammari 15, Alsaed 13, Abu 12, Alhamidi 9, Borhamah 7, Aljumah 5, Hasan 3, Alshammari 0.
Quarters: 34-11, 55-27, 87-48, 110-64