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
Al-Qadsiah victory over Al-Khaleej tightens Saudi Pro League title race
- Brendan Rodgers’ side now sit fourth on 43 points, four behind league leaders Al-Hilal
- Points dropped by Al-Hilal and Al-Ahli on Monday blow the title race wide open
RIYADH: Matchday 20 of the Saudi Pro League concluded after what was arguably the most dramatic week of the season, both on and off the pitch.
Monday saw the winter transfer window come to a close with late twists — most notably the transfer of Karim Benzema from Al-Ittihad to Al-Hilal — alongside the highly anticipated clash between Al-Hilal and Al-Ahli. While all eyes were on that fixture, Al-Qadsiah quietly continued their unbeaten run with a 1-0 victory over Al-Khaleej, extending it to 10 matches.
With the campaign now beyond its halfway point, there is no telling who will become champion come end of the season. As things stand, Al-Hilal sit top with 47 points, followed by city rivals Al-Nassr on 46 points. In third place, Al-Ahli on 44 points, with Al-Qadsiah just behind on 43.
Al-Qadsiah’s win was anything but easy, however. Under Brendan Rodgers, one-goal victories had previously only come against against heavyweights such as Al-Nassr and Al-Ittihad. Games against Al-Riyadh, Al-Fayha, Al-Hazem and Al-Najma — all in the bottom half of the table — were won by two goals or more.
Giorgos Donis’ Al-Khaleej presented a different challenge. Finding themselves in the upper mid-table this season thanks to stellar performances from the likes of Giorgos Masouras, Joshua King and Kostas Fortounis, it was never going to be easy for Al-Qadsiah, even in the absence of Fortounis due to injury.
It seemed like the flurry of games finally took its toll on the Knight of the East, with stars Julian Quinones and Musab Al-Juwayr looking fatigued. In the 38 days since Rodgers took charge at Al-Qadsiah, the side have played 10 matches, with five more to come in the next 23 days.
Despite 18 attempts at goal, only one came to fruition. A through ball to Quinones in the 41st minute was squared to Mateo Retegui, who finished into an open net to score the only goal of the game.
Al-Qadsiah didn’t sit back for the remainder of the game, prompting Al-Khaleej to take advantage of the spaces in behind the wing-backs to launch their own offence. Saudi national team centre-back Jehad Thekri was repeatedly left exposed, but backup goalkeeper Ahmed Al-Kassar did his best to prevent Al-Khaleej from finding an equaliser.
Despite being the week which saw the title race tighten to just four points between first and fourth, this was the second-lowest scoring Saudi Pro League matchday in history, with just nine goals across the nine games. None of the 18 teams were able to score more than one goal, with half the sides going goalless this round.
Elsewhere, just minutes away at E’GO Stadium, Al-Ettifaq managed to secure a valuable 1-0 victory against this campaign’s surprise package Al-Taawoun, after a 71st minute strike from Georginio Wijnaldum.
Meanwhile, Al-Kholood ended their streak of 18 games without a draw by grabbing a point in a 0-0 draw against Damac. The point for both sides was enough to see them end the round outside the relegation zone; Al-Kholood in 14th with 16 points and Damac in 15th with 12.
Saudi Pro League action returns on Thursday, with Al-Ahli and Al-Hilal continuing their title charges against Al-Hazem and Al-Okhdood respectively. Friday will feature the game of the round, with Al-Nassr welcoming Al-Ittihad at Al-Awwal Park in Riyadh.
