Philippines nails 2nd win in Fiba Asia -AA+A By Frank C. Calapre and Mike T. Limpag Saturday, August 3, 2013 HE IS Jason William in the Fiba Asia Championships. But for Pinoy fans, he is simply Jason Castro, the flashy guard called The Blur for his quickness. Last night, he tortured the Jordan defense for a come-from-behind win, 77-71, in the Fiba Asia Championships at the packed MOA Arena. At 2-0, the Philippines is assured of a spot in the quarterfinal round but before that, the Pinoys will take on Chinese Taipei for its final Group A assignment. It will be the two teams’ first meeting since Gilas’ invitation in the Jones Cup, which it won last year, was rescinded owing to the political climate between the two countries. The top three teams in Groups A and B will form the six-team Group E in the quarterfinals. Jordan, which lost to Chinese Taipei last Thursday, seemed determined to nail its frst win and started strong for an 18-7 lead before taking the first quarter, 20-16. They continued to shut down Gilas in the second, limiting the Pinoys to outside shots as they put up an 11-point lead, 36-25, midway. Ranidel de Ocampo hit Gilas’ fourth trey of the quarter, while Marcus Douthit and Castro hit a basket each to cut the lead to five, 38-33, at halftime. Then in the third quarter, Gabe Norwood and Castro—who is forced to use the name that appears in his passport in the tournament—took over. Trailing 36-42, Jeff Chan hit his fourth trey of the night and Castro added another basket, while Gilas forced Jordan to back-to-back turnovers. Norwood had another breakaway and Castro hit a trey to make it 47-42, before Japeth Aguilar joined with a steal and back-to-back baskets for 53-42. Jordan broke the impasse with a pair of free throws and a shot by Jimmy Baxter before Douthit and De Castro completed that turnaround to lead by 10, 57-47. Baxter, who finished with 30 against Chinese Taipei but only had 14 last night, tried to mount a rally against the Philippines, and Jordan came close, exploiting three straight turnovers to cut the lead to six, 63-57 with over five minutes left. But Castro hit back-to-back baskets, while Norwood, who was named the Best Player of the Game, shut down the lane as Gilas nailed its second straight win. “Nag-relax kami sa depensa sa first half kaya naiwanan kami. But when we got our rhythm in defense, tuloy-tuloy na,” said Castro. Chan led the team with 17 points, while Castro finished with 16, with 8 in that pivotal third-quarter run. Chan also said the crowd was a big factor. “The crowd was abig boost for us. Their cheers really inspired us a lot. I hope they will continue to watch our games. We really need a booster,” said Chan, who fired six-of-10 in the three-point zone. “When we were scoring in the second half, we were already imposing our well and that triggered a big run for us,” said coach Chot Reyes. In the other games, China recovered from its lost to South Korea with a 113-22 rout of Malaysia, while Chinese Taipei beat Saudia Arabia, 90-67.
Posted on: Fri, 02 Aug 2013 23:05:56 +0000
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