Wednesday, July 27, 2005
Pinoys beat Koreans
ASI Taulava couldn’t have picked a better time to shine.
Up against a squad that brought back heart-slicing memories of the 2002 Asian Games, Taulava turned in a breakout game and led RP-San Miguel to a sweet, hard-earned 79-75 victory over mighty Korea last Monday in the 27th R. William Jones Cup in Taiwan.
In other games at the Taipei Physical Education Gym, Russia’s Samara squad massacred Australia-AIS, 93-64, while the United States’ Passing Lane Sports also improved to 3-0 after bamboozling Kazakhstan, 88-78.
Passing Lane defeated RP-San Miguel in the recent Global Hoops Summit in Las Vegas.
Feeling is good
The 6-foot-9, 286-pound Taulava, who averaged just nine points in RP’s first two games, scored 14 points and, most importantly, gave the Philippines an aggressive, physical presence in the paint against an imposing Korean frontline that featured 6-foot-9 power forward Joo Tae-Soo, a promising post player who has already been eyed by a number of American college coaches.
“It really feels good beating Korea,” said Taulava, who was part of the RP team that lost to Korea on a buzzer-beating trey by Lee San Ming in the 2002 Asiad semifinals. A win would have catapulted RP to a gold-medal match with China.
“That loss hurt a lot. And I’m glad we played a good game against Korea this time.”
The win was RP-San Miguel’s third straight in the tournament.
Meanwhile, ABC Champions Cup titlist Qatar improved to 2-1 with a 78-69 victory over Japan, while the Chinese-Taipei home team bounced back from a 74-95 drubbing at the hands of the Americans last Sunday by venting its ire on India, 111-70, to also hike its record to 2-1.
Japan, Kazakhstan, Australia and India share the cellar with identical 0-3 slates.
Trailing, 33-34, at the half, RP-San Miguel Beer went on a third-quarter rampage and wrested the momentum from the Koreans. A three-point play by Jay-jay Helterbrand gave the Nationals a 69-56 lead with 6:26 to go in the game, but the Koreans struck back with a flurry of their own and set the stage for a thriller finish.
Big rally
A 3-pointer from Yang Hee-Jong sparked a big comeback that got Korea to within two twice, the last time at 75-77 on a split by Kim Yong-Hwan from the stripe, time down to 34.3 seconds. A defensive lapse by the Koreans, however, allowed Dondon Hontiveros to slither inside for an easy lay-up with 14.8 seconds remaining.
The basket pegged the final score as Kang Byung-Hun was called for traveling in the next play.
“Asi was a force on both offense and defense,” said national coach Chot Reyes, who played with only nine men after Willie Miller was sidelined due to injury. “It’s really the worst time to lose someone like Willie when we’re up against a team like Korea. But people stepped up and everyone contributed.”
“The first one-third of the job is done,” said Reyes, whose team is set to face India tonight. “We’re up against a relatively light opponent tomorrow, and then the big games come in again.”
RP-SMB (79) – Taulava 14, Cablay 11, Helterbrand 11, Raymundo 9, Williams 9, Hontiveros 9, de la Cruz 7, Adducul 6, de Ocampo 3. South Korea (75) – Joo 23, No 15, Yang 13, Kim YH 9, Kang 6, Kim J 5, Lee HM 4, Lee KJ 0, Song 0, Park 0.
Quarterscores: 17-18, 33-34, 59-51, 79-75. (GCM)
(July 27, 2005 issue)
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