History repeated itself Sunday night as Jayson Castro proved to be the thorn on the side of Japan, sinking a cold-blooded floater in the closing seconds to help SMART Gilas Pilipinas eke out an 89-84 victory at the Mall of Asia Arena.
Castro, who nailed a dagger trey during their first meeting in Tokyo back in November of 2017, made a floater with 10.6 seconds left to play to shun the door for Akatsuki Five’s comeback hopes, which started from 14 down.
The TNT Katropa star, who missed Gilas’ game versus Australia last Thursday, finished with eight points on 3-of-6 shooting along with three assists.
“That’s why we have Jayson,” said Gilas head coach Chot Reyes. “That’s why we made sure Jayson is in this line-up. We rested him the last game to make sure he was ready for tonight because he’s our premier closer. He came through tonight.”
The Philippines improved to 3-1 and are assured of a spot in the second round of the Qualifiers. Japan, meanwhile, has remained winless in four games now, thus sending their chances of going into the next phase bleaker.
Andray Blatche was seemingly back to his old self as he led Gilas 18 points and 16 rebounds, along with four assists and two steals. Troy Rosario had 14 points all in the first half, while Kiefer Ravena made 13 markers and five dimes.
The Filipino dribblers — who went off to a sluggish start that saw them go down 4-20 until gaining groove in the second frame — was already up by 14 points, 85-71, after Ravena’s perfect trip to the foul line with 4:33 to go in the match.
However, the Japanese made one last hurrah afterwards. Ira Brown’s triple and Daiki Tanaka’s back-to-back hits, which came from Gilas’ errors, trimmed the gap to just a precarious two points, 86-84, with 31.5 seconds left.
That, however, proved to be their last gasp, as Castro’s dagger floater off the glass went in. Japan then failed to convert their shots on the other end, and Blatche’s split from the line with five ticks left put the game away for good.
“We knew we’re gonna have a hard time, because of the flight that we took. I think it showed in our start, we had a very flat start. But luckily our second group gave us a lot of energy and got us back into the ball game,” added Reyes.
Makoto Hiejima led the Akatsuki Five with a game-high 23 markers on 8-of-11 shooting. Brown was just a couple of rebounds short of a double-double as he made 16 points and eight caroms, while Tanaka chipped in 12 markers.
The third window will be on June 29 and July 2, with Gilas taking on Australia again and Chinese Taipei.
The Scores:
Philippines 89 — Blatche 18,Rosario 14, Ravena 13, Abueva 8, Castro William 8, Norwood 8, Fajardo 7, Pogoy 6, Aguilar 5, Jalalon 2, Wright 0.
Japan 84 — Hiejima 23, Brown 16, Tanaka 12, Shinoyama 9, Tsuji 8, Ota 6, Takeuchi 5, Uto 3, Harimoto 2, Furukawa 0, Hashimoto 0, Nagayoshi 0.
Quarterscores: 21-22, 46-41, 72-61, 89-84.
