Errors proved costly for Smart Gilas-Pilipinas against Japan
from mb.com.ph
GUANGZHOU — Former national coach Chot Reyes believes that Smart Gilas has a strong chance of taking third place in its group despite its narrow 60-58 defeat to Japan Friday night in the 16th Asian Games at the Huangpu gymnasium.
“We need to win our last two games to avoid China in the quarterfinals,” said Reyes who is now one of the assistant coaches of Serbian mentor Rajko Toroman.
Reyes said there’s still a remote possibility of the Filipinos figuring in a tie for second spot, but they need to take care of business one game at a time.
The Filipinos battle India on Sunday before winding up their elimination matches against Chinese-Taipei on Monday.
Reyes noted that Gilas beat Japan in most of the departments, including a 43-35 edge in rebounds.
“Both teams shot poorly, but what hurt us were the 19 turnovers,” Reyes said.
The Japanese, who picked up their third consecutive win, converted 14 points off Gilas’ turnovers.
Gilas co-skipper Chris Tiu, who only had five points on 1-of-6 shooting, said they had a hard time executing their offense.
“Japan played a different zone defence and we got confused. That’s why we made mistakes in passing the ball,” said Tiu who was 0 of 4 from rainbow territory. “I hesitated to shoot three-pointers because I didn’t want to rush it.”
Marcio Lassiter was Gilas’ top scorer with 13 points while Kelly Williams had 12.
“I think I was good enough in this game. But no matter whether I got how many points, our team didn’t win. That’s nothing,” said Lassiter who accounted for two of Gilas’ five three-pointers.
Japan was led by Takumi Ishizaki who had 16 points, but it was former Phoenix Suns player Yuta Tabuse who held the team together.
“He (Tabuse) is our point guard and team leader. He didn’t score many points because he led the defensive play of our team,” said Japan’s American coach Thomas Robert Wisman.
Wisman said Japan still needs to improve its offence to go to the semifinals.
The Japanese shot 37 percent from the field, slightly worse than the Filipinos’ 38 percent, but had more attempts on the floor, 62-58.
The game was marked by three deadlocks and six lead changes.
The Filipinos opened the final quarter with a 6-0 run capped by Andy Barroca’s jumper to seize the lead, 49-48, but the Japanese responded with a 9-2 salvo to build a 58-54 lead going into the last three minutes.
Kelly Williams missed two free throws, but made up for it with a field basket following a Japanese missed basket on the other end of the floor.
Down, 56-58, with less than a minute remaining, the Filipinos had a chance to take the lead but Marnel Baracael’s heave on top of the key missed its mark.
The scores:
JAPAN 60 — Ishizaki 16, Takeuchi K. 11, Tabuse 9, Takeuchi J. 8, Sakurai 6, Hirose 4, Ito 4, Amino 0, Okada 0, Yamada 0, Takeda 0.
SMART GILAS PH 58 — Lassiter 13, Williams 12, Casio 10, Baracael 7, Taulava 5, Tiu 5, Slaughter 4, Barroca 2, Lutz 0.
Quarters: 14-9, 30-29, 48-43, 60-58
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