Out of synch early, Team Philippines yesterday afternoon played well enough to survive.
Shooting poorly at the start and in the endgame, the Filipinos still hacked out a 75-68 decision of Chinese-Taipei to march into the Final Four of the fourth Fiba-Asia Cup at the Ota Gymnasium here.
Marcus Douthit, the 6-foot-10 naturalized Filipino center, carried the fight for the Filipinos in the first half just when everyone else in the team was throwing bricks.
And it took a stretch of brilliance in opening up the fourth quarter for the Philippines to dust off the Taiwanese, whom they buried in a 14-point hole heading into the final four minutes.
Next up for the Filipinos is defending champion Iran, which virtually went through the motions in an earlier contest before posting a 79-37 whipping of Uzbekistan.
Coach Chot Reyes is not at all happy with the way his charges pounded out the victory, which has equaled the Philippines’ best-ever finish in the tournament held once every two years in honor of Fiba founder Borislav Stankovic.
LA Tenorio, who also hurt the Taiwanese the most in the Philippines’ championship run in the Jones Cup in Taipei, hit five straight points to open up the fourth quarter before Douthit added a short stab that had the Filipinos racing to a 61-53 lead.
And that was all the momentum that the Philippines needed, as it bloated that advantage to 71-54 after triples by Gary David and Jeff Chan.
That 14-point bubble was enough to cushion a hard Taiwanese charge as they came to within 66-71 with under two minutes left before Tenorio hit two charities off a foul from Chen Shieh-cheh.
“We got rusty. We lost our edge because we came off two easy games (versus Macau and Uzbekistan) followed by a two-day break,” Reyes said.
“We played our worst game and we just found a way to win in the end.”
“We played bad. It was a bad game where we had bad shooting, bad decision-making and bad defense. We would’ve been returning to our hotel crying if it were Iran,” said assistant coach Jong Uichico.
Qatar upset Lebanon and will clash with the winner of the Japan vs China match in the other Final Four pairing.
Douthit went on to score 19 points that went with 18 rebounds with David, the scoring champion in the last PBA season, shooting 14.
Ranidel de Ocampo was the third man in twin digits for Reyes with 10.
Taipei made it a close game because of the heroics of seldom-used Douglas Creighton.
Creighton, who finished with 21 points, drilled in seven triples, the last coming in the dying seconds of the third period, which gave the Taiwanese a 53-52 lead.
But that proved to be Taipei’s last hurrah as Tenorio, the Jones Cup MVP, escaped tight guarding to score those five straight points.
Team Philippines through to Fiba-Asia Cup semis
Team Philippines through to Fiba-Asia Cup semis
Ferhat stars as Mouloudia get CAF Champions League boost
- Muslim Anatouf scored after 15 minutes and a Ferhat thunderbolt on 44 minutes gave Mouloudia a two-goal half-time advantage
- It would have been an injustice if the Sudanese club had snatched a draw
JOHANNESBURG: Zinedine Ferhat created the first goal and scored the second for Mouloudia Alger of Algeria in a 2-1 win over Al Hilal of Sudan 2-1 on Friday that threw CAF Champions League Group C wide open.
Muslim Anatouf scored after 15 minutes and a Ferhat thunderbolt on 44 minutes gave Mouloudia a two-goal half-time advantage before a near-capacity crowd in the 45,000-seat Algiers stadium.
Hilal rarely threatened to reduce the deficit in a cauldron of cheering, singing and flag waving until Mauritanian Ahmed Salem M’Bareck netted with 13 minutes remaining.
Ghanaian substitute Kamaradini Mamudu had a late chance to bring Hilal level, but his header from a corner flew wide.
It would have been an injustice if the Sudanese club had snatched a draw, however, as they were outplayed by quicker, slicker Mouloudia for long periods of an often scrappy, foul-ridden match.
Despite losing for the first time in the group after two victories and two draws, Hilal retained first place with eight points.
Topping the table in the most competitive of the four groups is a remarkable achievement by Hilal given they have to stage home matches in Rwanda because of the ongoing Sudanese civil war.
Mouloudia had just one point after matchday three, but back-to-back home wins over Saint-Eloi Lupopo from the Democratic Republic of Congo and Hilal have lifted them to second with seven points.
Mamelodi Sundowns of South Africa have five points, one more than Lupopo, ahead of their clash in Lubumbashi on Sunday.
A win for Lupopo would leave Sundowns in danger of missing the knockout stage of the premier African club competition for only the second time since winning the 2016 final against Zamalek of Egypt.
In the final round on February 14, Hilal host Lupopo and Sundowns will have home advantage over Mouloudia, whose South African coach, Rhulani Mokwena, was formerly in charge of the Pretoria club.
