One of Japeth's three dunks
Japeth Aguilar put a punctuation
mark on the Smart Gilas win over Team Qatar as his empathic dunk with 7 seconds
left in the game showed that TEAM Philippines has awaken from the slumber that
they took five days ago. Team Pilipinas
beat QATAR 80 – 70 as apparently the point spread was enough to fend off the
rallying middle east team. Marcus Douthhit led the team with 19 points as he
literally scored at will as the Qataris could not keep up with his inside presence
while Aguilar on the other hand added 14
points.
Marcus was a force in the middle
The home team controlled the pace
of the game from the get go as Jeff Chan started the ball rolling with two
three pointers right away. The Filipinos then zoomed in to a 15 – 6 lead as
Gabe Norwood tried to shut down Qatar’s naturalized player Jarvis Hayes. Hayes
is the tournament leader in points with 22 points per game but the Filipinos
did well in shutting him down. He still managed to score a team high 17 points
but most of those came from garbage time and he even missed two crucial free
throws right around the time they had a blistering run in the fourth period.
The Qataris eventually caught up in the first quarter to tie the score at 20 –
all.
Jeff Chan buries a three
The second quarter proved to be the
difference in the match as the Filipinos scored one basket after the other and
their tight defense held the Qatar team to just 9 points. The Filipinos through
LA Tenorio, Gary David, Jason William and Jimmy Alapag alternated in scoring to
give Team Gilas a 47 – 29 lead. The
Qataris never knew what hit them. There
was tension in the third quarter when Marcus Douthit came down holding his
knees and eventually limping off the court. With Douthit out, the Qataris used
the first few minutes of the fourth quarter to get back into the game.
Jolens move by LA Tenorio
The Qataris opened the quarter with
a 14 – 2 run as their outside sniping finally came into play and their inside
play finally making wonders. Aside from Hayes, Efran Ali Saeed scored inside to
give the home team a big scare. Jeff Chan sank a free throw and Marcus Douthit
eventually came back in to help the Smart Gilas team stem the tide. Japeth
Aguilar showed his athleticism by grabbing missed rebounds by Qatar and at the
same time scoring at the free throw line and dunking on everyone else.
Crowd favorite Gary David on the move
The win made the Qatar vs. Chinese
Taipei game a crucial one today. If Chinese Taipei wins the Philippines will
have to meet China in the Quarterfinals. A win by Qatar will have the Smart
Gilas take first place in Group E and will meet most probably Kazahkstan. If
Qatar wins by 16 points then they take first place then RP comes in second.
Tough task for the Filipinos so lets troop to the MOA Arena to cheer our team.
LABAN PILIPINAS.
Japeth's 2nd dunk
The scores
PHILIPPINES
(80)
Douthit
19, Aguilar 14, Chan 12, Tenorio 7, William 7, Alapag 5, David 5, de Ocampo 4,
Norwood 3, Pingris 2, Fonacier 2, Fajardo 0.
QATAR (70)
Hayes
17, Saeed 13, Abdi 9, Musa 8, Daoud 8, Elhadary 5, Mohamed 4, Mohammed 4, Mo.
Abdullah 2, Ali 0, Ma. Abdullah 0, Saad 0.
Quarter scores
20 – all, 47 – 29, 63 – 44, 80 – 70
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