Gilas Pilipinas led by as much as 19 points in the first half, but allowed the Taiwanese to erase it and even tie it entering the final quarter.
However, big buckets by Terrence Romeo, who top-scored for the team with 18 points along with four assists, and Jayson Castro, who finished with 16 points, rescued Gilas Pilipinas as they opened the tournament with a win.
Just in their fourth competitive game as a team, Gilas Pilipinas, which missed naturalized player Andray Blatche as he left for the United States for personal matters, got off to a rousing 7-0 start against the hosts.
But the Taiwanese slowly got their shooting touch and gained the lead, 16-13. However, the Filipinos got a boost from Romeo who subbed in late in the first period.
GILAS PHILIPPINES VS SOUTH KOREA
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Date: Sunday August 31, 2015
Time: 7:00 p.m. Philippine Time
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Time: 7:00 p.m. Philippine Time
The PBA Most Improved Player quickly made his presence felt, wreaking havoc on the driving lanes with his acrobatic layups. He got a steal for an easy two right before the first period buzzer sounded with Gilas Pilipinas ahead, 26-20.The Philippine national men’s basketball team hung tough for three quarters but ran out of steam in the fourth quarter against fierce Asian rivals South Korea, 82-70, as it was handed its first loss in the 37th Williams Jones Cup on Monday in New Taipei City, Taiwan.
Playing without naturalized player Andray Blatche, Gilas Pilipinas kept in pace with Korea before allowing a 13-0 run in the final period that saw them go down by as much as 11 points, 69-58, with 4:16 remaining.
Terrence Romeo, who again paced the Philippines with 23 big points after scoring 18 in their tournament opener, tried to lead a Gilas comeback as they closed back to within five points but some timely baskets from Korea’s Moon Taeyoung and Lee Junghyun doused the rally late.
South Korea outscored the Philippines, 28-16, in the fourth quarter.
Gary David added 16 points behind Romeo’s team-high output while Calvin Abueva chipped in with nine points and six rebounds.
Romeo and Abueva combined to score all of the Philippines’ points in the fourth quarter with Romeo finishing with 11 in the final period.
Behind the outside shooting of David and some aggressive play in transition, the Philippines led by one, 21-20, at the end of the first period.
The Filipinos, though, needed to weather an early scoring barrage care of Korean gunner Lee Seunghyeun, who topped his combined output of 11 points in his team’s first two games in the Jones Cup with a huge 13-point first quarter explosion for Gilas’ rivals.
The Koreans were able to turn it into a defensive game in the second quarter. They held Gilas down to just 13 points while 6-foot-9 big man Lee Jonghyun pounded the Filipinos inside as they moved ahead.
Ranidel De Ocampo, seeing his first action for Gilas coming off a hamstring injury, shook off some the rust to score five points and help the Philippines keep things close, 36-34, at the halftime break.
David led Gilas with eight points over the first two periods while De Ocampo and Jayson Castro each had five.
They outshot the Koreans from three-point range, shooting 30.8% to their rivals’ 18.2% but lost the rebounding battle, 25-16.
David continued his fine play in the third quarter and Gilas saw a big infusion of energy with the entries of Romeo and Abueva, who helped spearhead an 8-0 run that gave the Filipinos a 47-44 advantage with 3:08 left in the quarter.
Then came an exciting sequence where Lee Junghyun completed a rare four-point play for Korea but Romeo, who had no plans of taking that lying down, immediately responded with one of his own for the Philippine side.
Another triple from David, who finished the third with 16 points to his name, gave Gilas a four-point lead, 54-50, in the final minute of the third but the Koreans scored two quick baskets to force another deadlock, 54-54, at the end of the period.
They could not keep it going in the fourth, though, and Korea, led by Moon, scored 13 unanswered points to turn the game around in the last 10 minutes.
Romeo ended a five and a half minute Gilas scoring drought with a pair of free throws and quickly followed it up with a split from the line and a three-pointer as the Filipinos cut the deficit down to five, 69-64, with three minutes remaining.
But two free throws from Moon and a three-pointer from Lee Junghyun made it an 11-point game, 76-65, yet again with 1:42 remaining.
Lee Seunghyun finished with 19 points while Moon had 17 points, 12 rebounds, three assists and three steals to lead South Korea, which notched its first win in three games in the Jones Cup.
Moon is the brother of fellow Korean-Americcan player Moon Tae-jong, who scored 38 points against Gilas Pilipinas in last year’s Asian Games in Incheon.
Gilas suffered its first setback after opening its campaign with a win over Chinese Taipei A. They dropped down to 1-1 in the nine-team tournament.
The Filipinos will next face undefeated Spartak Primorye of Russia on Tuesday at 1:00 p.m.
The scores:
South Korea (82) – Lee SH 19, Moon TY 17, Lee Ju. H 12, Lee Jo. H 11, Kim JK 8, Park CH 6, Kim SH 5, Kim TS 2, Ha 2.
Gilas Pilipinas (70) – Romeo 23, David 16, Abueva 9, Castro 7, De Ocampo 5, Taulava 4, Ramos 2, Intal 2, Tautuaa 2, Norwood 0, Pingris 0, Alapag 0.
Quarterscores: 20-21, 36-34, 54-54, 82-70.
SOURCE: INTERAKSYON.COM