They may be young, but the Gilas cadets appears to have grasped how to close out games strongly
Gilas Pilipinas banked on yet another fourth quarter blitz to dismantle the Japan Under-24 squad, 100-85, en route to its third straight win in the 39th William Jones Cup, Tuesday at the Taipei Peace Basketball Hall in Taiwan.
“In an elite tournament like this, there’s no such thing as an easy game,” said Gilas head coach Chot Reyes, as his side improved to 3-1. “Regardless of the record, regardless of the score, there’s no such thing as an easy game.”
“That’s why we felt we are going to be in for a tough match against Japan tonight. In the end we were fortunate to pull it out,” Reyes furthered.
Christian Standhardinger continues to impress, scoring 22 points alongside 15 rebounds to pace Gilas. Fellow slotman Mike Myers also had a double-double with 17 markers — 11 coming from the second half — and 17 caroms.
After trailing 73-72 with 6:54 in the payoff period, the Filipinos dropped bombs on the Japanese through a scintillating 14-1 outburst punctuated by a Myers throwdown to construct a 12-point lead, 86-74, with 2:36 left to play.
Japan still tried to make one last stand as they inched within eight, 93-85, but failed to get any closer as charities by Jio Jalalon, Kiefer Ravena, Matthew Wright, and Roger Pogoy helped the Filipinos secure their third win in a row.
Wright produced 15 points for the Philippines, while Ravena and Jalalon chipped in 11 markers.
But despite the rousing win, Reyes already expressed concerns towards their game tomorrow, Wednesday, July 19 against Korea.
“My concern really is tomorrow [against] Korea, because we were hoping we’ll be able to rest more guys today and have them fresh for Korea,” said Reyes. “But, we needed to play people some extensive minutes. Good thing we were able to grind it out, but my concern really is how will we compete.”
The Japanese were led by Yusei Sugiura with 22 markers spiked by four treys to go with five caroms. The troika of Leo Vendrame, Gen Hiraiwa, and Shuta Hata each supplied 12 markers, while Shuta Ando scored 11 and had seven boards.
Gilas outworked Japan in terms of rebounds, 49-35, and their effort on defense, which saw them rack up eight steals, forced Japan to commit 12 errors.
The Scores:
Gilas Pilipinas (100) – Standhardinger 22, Myers 17, Wright 15, Ravena 11, Jalalon 11, Cruz 7, Pessumal 6, Pogoy 5, Paras 4, Tolomia 2, Belo 0, Gotladera 0.
Japan U-24 (85) – Sugiura 22, Hiraiwa 12, Vendrama 12, Hara 12, Ando 11, Nomoto 9, Tawatari 5, Ikuhara 2, Sato 0, Sumino 0, Taichi 0.
Quarterscores: 19-16, 41-42, 66-66, 100-85.
