Supremely popular Smart Gilas Philippines
DOHA (21st FIBA Asia Champions Cup): It surely was the largest crowd of the tournament so far. And it surely was worth the visit for the fans – didn’t matter whether they were supporting hosts Al Rayyan or the supremely popular Smart Gilas Philippines.
But in the end, Al Rayyan played some superb defense in the second half and won 86-58 to post their second win in the Group A preliminary round.
In the other Group A game, Astana Tigers of Kazakhstan endured the crunch moments with better composure and warded off Iraq’s Duhok 75-68.
It was Astana’s first win in two games, and they line up against Smart Gilas on Monday. Duhok suffered their second defeat in as many games.
Group B saw Jordan league champions ASU begin their campaign in a whirlwind manner beating UAE’s Al Nasr 90-74, handing over the latter their second defeat.
ASU’s fellow WABA team Al Jalaa too were as convincing in beating Saudi Arabia’s Al Hilal 93-63. Both Al Jalaa and Al Hilal are at 1-1 in win-loss.
Hosts Al Rayyan opened up the game in the closing moments of the third quarter and then hung on grimly to post their win.
A quick look at the score-sheet, where Rayyan outscored Smart Gilas by a staggering 50-17 margin in the second half was the factual statement of the proceedings on the court.
“I think we were woefully short in defense in the first half,” said Rayyan coach Carl Nash.
“We didn’t pick their screens well. Also some of the shots that we took were not on,” the American added.
“When you make such mistakes against such a team, it is bound to show on the score sheet,” Nash said.
“I am glad we recovered fast enough and more importantly didn’t allow them a fight back.”
Targuy Ngombo’s three-pointer in the closing moments of the third quarter set the ball rolling for Rayyan. That long ranger gave the hosts a 53-50 lead, which only kept growing.
As against that Smart Gilas suffered a decline in form.
“We were alright in the first half. Our shooting began to suffer in the second, and they also came up strong in rebounds,” said Smart Gilas coach Toroman Rajko.
From a healthy 44% at the end of the first half, the Filipino outfit finished with an unconvincing 26% in field attempts.
Rayyan collected as many as 16 defensive rebounds in the second half, to cut out the second chance points.
“I think we have just lost the battle, not the war,” Rajko said.
Duhok allowed Astana Tigers to call the shots for a better part of the game, and paid the price.
“We played at our best only in the fourth quarter,” said Iraq coach Hamza Bakkal.
“Our imports too couldn’t get the combination going with the others,” he lamented.
“I thought we made too many mistakes towards the end of the game,” said Nikolay Mikhalchuk the Manager of Astana Tigers.
“Perhaps our experience carried us through,” he added.
Zaid Abbaas, fresh from an impressive stint in the Chinese professional league, celebrated his return to a Jordanian team with a team-high 22 points performance for ASU.
“This is the first game this team is playing together,” said Oniga.
“Our imports arrived less than a week ago and Abbaas too is coming back to the team after a while,” he added.
“In a way that favored us as the boys were eager to take to the court and play together. That I guess was the reason for the early blitz,” he said.
Radhounae Slimane, the Tunisian import, was Al Nasr’s leading scorer, as well as for the game, with his 30 points.
Al Hilal posted a superb 15-0 spree that ran across the third quarter break, but even that proved insufficient to overcome the deficit they had surrendered earlier.
From a seemingly desperate 41-66 position with 2:38 left on the clock for the third quarter, Al Hilal sprang the scare on their rivals.
Hani Al Mohammed and Dermarr Johnson both scored four points each, Ahmed Samater scored on the paint and Abdulrahman Aldosari converted both his free-throws after Hassan Alzawad had fired in his third three-pointer for the game.
Al Jalaa ended the barren run when Garnet Thompson scored with characteristic strength, which began the Syrian’s revival in fortunes.
“It happens. This is a game after all,” said Al Jalaa coach Mansur Bajramovic.
“The important thing is we didn’t allow them to fight back too much,” the Bosnian added.
“Let’s not forget we were playing an experienced team,” said Al Hilal coach Ali Alsanhani said.
“And also we had given them a huge advantage early on,” he said.
Scores
Group A
Astana Tigers, KAZ 75 (Anton Ponomarev 23, Maxim Voyeikov 12, Rustam Yargaliyev 12) bt Duhok, IRQ 68 (Priest Lauderdale 19, Calvin Cage 17, Qutaiba Mohammed 15). Quarterwise Scores: 19-10, 40-28, 65-53.
Al Rayyan, QAT 86 (Erfan Saeed 19, Cory Bradford 15, Targuy Ngombo 15, Saad Ali 10) bt Smart Gilas, PHI 58 (Mark Baroca 13, Marnel Baracel 11, Chris Tiu 10). Quarterwise scores: 24-23, 41-36, 51-59.
Group B
ASU, JOR 90 (Zaid Abbaas 22, Olumide Oyedeji 15, Mohammad Hadrab 14, Nedal Alsharif 14, Wesam Al-Sous 14) bt Al Nasr 74 (Radhouane Slimane 30, Jones Bernard 20, Saleh Sultan Khalifa 16). Quarterwise Scores: 30-13, 52-27, 64-43.
Al Jalaa, SYR 93 (Micheal Madanly 36, Chudley Gray 19, Garnett Thompson 13) bt Al Hilal, KSA 63 (Dermarr Johnson 13, Hassan Alzawad 11, Ahmed Samater 11). Quarterwise Scores: 29-19, 55-27, 66-52.
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.png)
Comments
Post a Comment