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Gilas thump Chinese Taipei B for silver medal finish


Gilas Pilipinas was simply too strong for the winless Chinese Taipei B, as they administered a 96-67 beating of the hosts to cap off what has been a promising display at the 37th William Jones Cup. The Filipinos guaranteed second place following their victory in the last match of the tournament.

It was not smooth sailing all throughout for Tab Baldwin’s men who found themselves behind by eight points early in the opening period. In response, the Gilas coach shuffled his deck to add more speed to match the intensity of their streaky opponents. The adjustment paid off as Calvin Abueva and Moala Tautuua came of the bench to spice up the Vilas offense, that was led by Jayson Castro. Abueva and Castro were active on both ends of the floor, forcing turnovers and shooting from the outside to fuel the Philippine attack. As a result, Gilas overturned a 10-2 deficit to end the half ahead by three at 24-21.

A magnificent second quarter propelled Gilas to a comfortable 50-32 advantage. Getting there, the Philippines banked on stingy defense. Offensive rhythm was sustained as eight Filipinos did their share in putting the points on the board. A remarkable juncture of the match was a huge 11-0 run led by Gary David ballooned his team’s lead to 14. On the other end, they limited Chinese Taipei B to 11 points, seven of which coming at the latter part of the half when Gilas was already ahead by a mile.

In the second half, the veteran trio of Castro, David, and de Ocampo made life tough for the young hosts. The home side piled up points from beyond the arch to answer the early Gilas rampage in the quarter but their efforts were rendered futile. David and de Ocampo shot the lights out from deep while Castro terrorized the paint on the back of his quick drives to the hoop. When the Chinese Taipei B team ran out of firepower, Gilas’ young guns Troy Rosario and Tautuua plunged them deeper towards the end of the third quarter that ended 82-53 for the boys in white.

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The paced slowed down in the last period but the Chinese Taipei B team refused to go down without a fight. They held Gilas to only five points in the opening six minutes of the fourth. However, they were not able to capitalize from Gilas’ miscues, registering only eight points themselves in the same period. Much of the credit belongs to Gilas who remained relentless on the defensive end. As time ran out, the Filipinos restored their 29-point lead to the final buzzer. In the process, they claim a second place finish independent of the result between Chinese Taipei A and South Korea later tonight, with a tournament record of six wins and two losses.

The Scores:
Philippines (96) – David 22, Castro 15, Tautuaa 12, De Ocampo 10, Abueva 8, Intal 7, Ramos 7, Thoss 6, Rosario 6, Ganuelas-Rosser 3, Norwood 0, Taulava 0.
Chinese Taipei-B (67) – Chien 18, Hsiao 14, Lin 9, Lee 9, Huang 8, Lee 3, Liu2, Lin CW 2, Chen 2, Chou 0, Cheng 0, Chien 0.
Quarterscores: 24-21, 50-32, 82-52, 96-67

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