Smart Gilas
played without Marcus Douthit, but they still gave Mouttahed Tripoli of Lebanon
a helluva time in the battle for fifth place. With Garvo Lanete and KG Cañaleta
waxing hot, the Pinoys almost pulled the rug from under their more seasoned
foes for the second time in the past week.
As it turned
out, however, the Lebanese managed to hold on to their slim lead and escape
with a 77-75 victory. In the other games, Sporting Aramex of Jordan defeated
the hometown Al Ahli squad for third place, while Al Riyadi (Sporting Beirut) defeated
fellow Lebanese club Sagesse in the Finals to win the title.
The Gilas
boys will next leave for the Super Keung Sheung Cup in Hong Kong, which
features two club teams from Hong Kong, the national teams of Thailand,
Malaysia, and Indonesia, the defending champions – Southern California
Fukienese Association, and, naturally, the Hong Kong national squad.
| The Gilas boys off to Hong Kong! (image from the Smart-Gilas 2.0 Facebook page) |
It’s a
bummer, though, that, despite the Philippine Cup already done, only Gary David of
Global Port has been confirmed to reinforce the otherwise cadet-laden team.
Cañaleta, Jay-R Reyes, and Ronjay Buenafe will all return to their mother clubs
in the PBA, while Jayson Castro and LA Tenorio, both of whom were included in
the original roster for the HK tourney, weren’t released for Gilas duty.
My beef here
is that this would have been the perfect time to get 10-12 PBA players together
with Douthit to start getting a feel for the international game in preparation
for the FIBA Asia gig in August. Instead, this tournament will serve as the
last big preparation for the cadet pool, who will banner the country in the
Southeast Asian Games later this year.
That’s a
great objective, but I still feel that not sending PBA players is a really big
missed opportunity. Sayang.
The following is a re-post from Jude Roque’s
Sharp Shooter column on Yahoo! Philippines:
Mouttahed Tripoli (Lebanon)
over SMART-Gilas Pilpinas, 77-75
The Smart
Gilas cadet team played its best game in the 24th Dubai International
Basketball Championship against Mouttahed Tripoli of Lebanon Friday but fell
short of repeating over the team it beat in the elimination round to finish the
tourney at sixth place. The Nationals, sans Marcus Douthit who sprained his
ankle in their quarterfinal match against Sagesse on Thursday, engaged the
bigger Lebanese team in a neck-and-neck battle but committed a costly turnover
in endgame that blew their chance of pulling off an upset.
With
Mouttahed up by just two points and with four seconds left in the game, Gilas
made an errant pass off a baseline play that could have tied or even won the
game for the Philippine squad. Mouttahed won the battle for fifth place, 77-75.
In their first meeting on January 11, Gilas shaded Mouttahed, 79-77.
But despite
the absence of Douthit, the young Pinoys showed grit and character in engaging
the tough Lebanese club, which led by as much as 14 points in the first half.
Mouttahed was ahead, 55-44, by halftime.
But the
Nationals caught fire in the third canto as they unloaded six triples, three
from KG Canaleta and two from Garvo Lanete, to take the driver’s seat at 69-62.
The payoff period saw a seesaw battle that had the game tied at 75-all in the
last two minutes of play. But Mouttahed’s Samer Mochref was able to sneak in a
lay-up to give the lead back to the Lebanese.
Lanete
finished with 27 markers on six of nine shooting from behind the arc, and eight
boards while Canaleta and RR Garcia added 14 points apiece.
“We learned
a lot from this tournament but more importantly, we learned a lot about the
players in the cadet line-up. Not only about their skills, but more importantly
about their character and their ability to play when the stakes are high. But
it’s so obvious that the competition here is far more superior than our
players. We played against more experienced teams with three imports,” said
Reyes, who acknowledged the great effort shown by the cadet squad in the game.
Lanete was
the most consistent scorer in this tournament for Gilas with 13.8 points per
game average followed by Canaleta’s 12.2.
The cadet
team is being groomed for the SEABA tournament and Southeast Asian Games. Some
of the key members of the cadet squad will be joining selected PBA players to
comprise the Gilas team that will compete in the Hong Kong invitational
tournament next week. Expected to be tapped for the tournament are members of
the recently crowned PBA All-Filipino champion Talk N’ Text such as Ranidel De
Ocampo, Larry Fonacier, Kelly Williams and Jimmy Alapag. Gilas hopes to qualify
for the World Cup next year by winning the Asian championship, which will be
hosted by the Philippines later this year
The
following piece is a re-post from InterAKTV:
Gary David rejoins Gilas as they gear up for the Super Keung Sheung Cup
The
SMART-Gilas Pilipinas national team will get a glimpse of the competition from
the Southeast Asian region in the 19th Super Kung Sheung Cup International
Basketball Invitational Championship this week in Hong Kong.
The
Philippines is bracketed in Group B of the competition alongside the national
teams of Hong Kong, Indonesia, and Malaysia in the tournament slated on January
22 to 27.
Leading
Group A is defending champion Southern California Fukienese Association, an
Asian-American squad composed of college players from the United States, along
with Thailand national team as well as clubs Changsa Park Lane Snow Wolves and
Hong Kong Xinlibao Bulls.
Members of
SMART-Gilas led by coach Chot Reyes returned home Sunday after finishing sixth
in the 24th Dubai International Basketball Tournament.
The team
will leave for Hong Kong on Monday, with Gary David the only new addition to
the squad.
The
GlobalPort gunner was a member of the SMART-Gilas squad that won the 34th
William Jones Cup last year.
Other PBA
players who reinforced the national team in Dubai — Jay-R Reyes and Ronjay
Buenafe of Meralco and KG Canaleta of Air 21 — will not be joining the squad in
Hong Kong.
Returning to
the national team for the weeklong competition are Kevin Alas, Garvo Lanete, RR
Garcia, Matthew Rosser, Jake Pascual, Ronald Pascual, Greg Slaughter and
Filipino-American recruits Justin Melton and Isaac Holstein.
Reyes said
the competition is part of the training of members of the program’s cadet pool,
who are being eyed to form the core of the SMART-Gilas squad that will compete
in the Southeast Asian Games this year.
Naturalized
player Marcus Douthit will also join the trip.
The
Philippines will take on Indonesia on Tuesday, Hong Kong the following day, and
Malaysia on January 24. The top two teams in each group will advance to the
crossover semifinal round
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