Philippine Basketball Review

Jones Cup 2017: Gilas Pilipinas vs. Iraq

noreply@blogger.com (Thadz) — Fri, 18 Aug 2017 09:26:00 +0000

Gilas Pilipinas faced Iraq in Day 6 of the 39th William Jones Cup in Taipei, Taiwan. This was a competitive game with Gilas Pilipinas coming out as victors, 84-75.

Game Story

Both teams played with imports. Iraq had Demario Mayfield but he is reportedly already a naturalized Iraqi citizen. Gilas Pilipinas had Mike Myers and Fil-German Christian Stardhandinger. While Stanhardinger has Filipino blood running in his veins, he is considered a naturalized player by FIBA standards.

Iraq took the first frame 19-15 in this highly physical match. Iraq had 4 steals while Gilas Pilipinas had 5 turnovers in this opening frame. The Iraqis though had 3 players committing 2 fouls each, 2 of them their starting center and point guard, Mohammed Al Khafaji and Ali Aljuboori.

The Filipinos shocked Iraq with a 21-3 2nd quarter. Matthew Wright scored 8 points in that period but it was a well-balanced attacked with 6 different players scoring. Philippines had 4 steals here and the Iraqis had 8 turnovers.

It was a high-scoring 3rd quarter with both teams combining for 55 points. 6 Filipinos again scored in the 3rd period. Carl Bryan Cruz and Roger Pogoy led the charge with 7 points apiece. Demario Mayfield led the Iraqis with 14 in the quarter.

The game was competitive until the 4th quarter, Iraq scoring 26 to the Philippines 20. But it was not enough. 5 players from Gilas Pilipinas scored in double figures for the game: Michael Myers (16), Kiefer Ravena (13), Roger Ray Pogoy (12), Carl Bryan Cruz (10), and Jiovani Jalalon (10). Myers also grabbed 18 big rebounds. Ravena had 6 assists and Pogoy and Wright had 2 steals apiece.

The Iraqis were led by Demario Mayfield with 29 points, 4 rebounds, 4 assists, and 6 steals. Dhulfiqar Al-hchaimi finished with 17 points, 10 rebounds, 1 assists, and 2 steals. Help from the other guys was anemic.

Click here for the box scores

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2016 Olympic Qualifying Tournament: Gilas Pilipinas vs France

noreply@blogger.com (Thadz) — Fri, 18 Aug 2017 09:06:00 +0000

Manila, Philippines hosted an Olympic Qualifying Tournament (OQT) on 5-10 July 2016. The winner of the OQT clinches a berth to the Rio de Janeiro Olympics later in that year. The world's 28th-ranked Gilas Pilipinas was grouped with France and New Zealand. It's first game was against France, ranked 5th in the world. France won, 93-84. But this game was competitive.

Game Story

Note: The video in this post is grabbed from YouTube. The video uploader has enabled sharing options indicating that sharing is allowed under the YouTube terms of Service. No copyright infringement is intended.

World Cup 2014: Gilas Pilipinas vs. Croatia

noreply@blogger.com (Thadz) — Fri, 18 Aug 2017 07:05:00 +0000

Gilas Pilipinas plays its first game in a FIBA World Cup tournament since 1978 when the Philippines hosted the tournament. Croatia was expected to get a blowout win at this 30 August 2014 group B action in Seville, Spain. But Gilas Pilipinas showed a lot of grit and heart to make the game competitive until the final buzzer. Croatia won 81-78 in overtime.

Croatia's big name players worked hard for this extra period win with NBA-bound players Dario Saric and Bojan Bogdanovic leading the way along with 7'2" center Ante Tomic and shooting guard Krunoslav Simon. Bogdanovic topscored for Croatia with 26 points to go along with 3 rebounds, 1 assist, and 2 steals. Ante Tomic was solid with 8 points, 11 rebounds, 4 assists, and 1 steal. Krunoslav Simon made key baskets at crunchtime to finish with 12 markers to his name while Saric did some early work finishing with 10 points, 9 rebounds, 4 assists, 1 steal, and 1 block.

This was NBA veteran Andray Blatche's first game as the naturalized player for Gilas Pilipinas. He was granted Filipino citizenship a few months before the competition in July 2017. Blatche had a monster game for Gilas Pilipinas notching a double double with 28 points, 12 rebounds, and a steal. Jeff Chan heated up from distance as he made 4/6 three pointers to finish with 17 points, 1 rebounds, and 4 steals. Undersized power forward Jean Marc Pingris also finished in double figures with 10 points, 4 rebounds, an assist, and a steal.

Click here for box scores

July 2016 Friendly: Gilas Pilipinas vs. Italia

noreply@blogger.com (Thadz) — Fri, 18 Aug 2017 07:03:00 +0000

In preparation for the Olympic Qualifying Tournament they will be hosting in Manila, Gilas Pilipinas went to Europe to hone their skills and play a number of exhibition games. One such game was against Italy who will be hosting another Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Turin. This game was played in Bologna, Italy as part of a pocket tournament.

Italy dominated this game from start to finish taking control with a 22-o start and a 31-7 first quarter. Team Italia shot a perfect 5/5 from distance in the first half while Gilas Pilipinas shot a paltry 1/6 on three pointers. The Italians were up 64-23 at the half. Gilas Pilipinas shaved off 3 points from the lead at the end of the third frame, 88-50. The final score was 106-70.

The trio of NBA players Danilo Gallinari, Marco Bellinelli, and Andrea Bargnani were just too much to handle for Gilas Pilipinas. Gallinari and Bellinelli finished with 20 and 11 points respectively. 3 Filipinos scored in double figures: Andray Blatche (21), Terrence Romeo (10), and Troy Rosario (10).