Smart Gilas Pilipinas: Philippines a 24-year SemiFinal Drought!

Wuhan, China : Philippines gave millions of fans back home a lot to cheer by making the semifinals of the FIBA Asia Championship for the first time in 24 years with a comeback 95-78 win against Chinese Taipei on Friday.

In Saturday’s semifinal, Philippines will take on Jordan who stunned defending champions Iran in an earlier quarterfinal.

For the record, Philippines had beaten Jordan 72-64 when the two met in a Group F Second Round game in this competition earlier.

Naturalized center Marcus Douthit once again had game-highs on either end of the floor, but it was JV Casio who sparked the Filipino rally tonight which put them in the semifinals for the 12th time in FIBA Asia Championship – but only the first time since the 1987 edition at Bangkok, where the team finished fourth.

Casio scored all his 8 points for the game in the second quarter leading an all-round Filipino offense to put them ahead.

Further, a 10-0 run – marked by Douthit’s clever three-point play early in the third quarter – put Philippines comfortably in lead and in control of the proceedings.

There was a minor counter offensive by Taipei, but with veteran Tseng Wen-Ting fouled out, the rally was too little coming too late.

“It’s a fantastic feeling,” gushed Philippines coach Rajko Toroman.

“This (the win) shows this team has the ability to make history. Philippines team is in the semifinals after such a long time. I think we have the ability to go all the way,” he said.

“I think we didn’t control the rebounds well in the first quarter,” said Douthit who poured in a massive 37 points and collected 10 rebounds.

“We didn’t control their shooters. We gave them too many second chance points,” he added.

“It’s a dream moment. Playing for the National Team and making the semifinals of this competition is a dream come true,” said Ranidel De Ocampo who scored 18 points and collected 5 rebounds besides dishing out 3 assists.

“We were outplayed by a better team. There’s no doubt in that,” said Taipei coach Chou Chuan-San.

FIBA Asia: Philippines beat Japan!

PHI/JPN - Filipino 3rd quarter blitz hands Japan their first defeat

WUHAN, China (26th FIBA Asia Championship): Philippines ran a 26-12 third quarter – which included a 10-0 run which brought them back into the reckoning in the game – that eventually helped them beat Japan 83-76 thus handing the latter’s first defeat in the competition here.

Naturalized center Marcus Douthit (pic above) poured in 19 of his 25 points and collected 12 of his 18 rebounds – both game-highs – in the second half to spark yet another Filipino rally that might have just helped them get a “better cross over draw in the quarterfinals.”

Japan ran the floor hard early and seized the initiative with a 15-0 run that went across the first quarter break.

But a woefully dipping rate of conversion from the foul-line and an increasingly growing in cohesion and cohesion Philippines put paid to the Japanese hopes of remaining undefeated in the competition.

Kelly Williams, one of the PBA imports in the Philippines team sparked a 10-0 run – capped by Marcio Lassiter’s crisp long-ranger – bring the Smart Gilas back into the reckoning.

Japan managed to remain even, but only till a 14-2 run – this time with Douthit leading from the front and Jimmy Alapag setting the Wuhan SC ablaze with a fiery three-pointer – put Philippines in control.

Rajko Toroman’s team never fell back after that.

“The key was we stopped Takuya Kawamura,” Rajko said.

Japan’s most charismatic basketball face in recent face was restricted to a dozen points – six of them in the third quarter – as the Hayabusa struggled with their rebounds and free-throws.

“You can’t think of winning with a 57% conversion in free-throws,” rued Japan coach Tom Wisman.

Japan went to the foul-line 28 times, but only 16 of them were successful.

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