Smart Gilas rips KL Dragons

Chris Lutz

Source : FIBA Asia - Champions Cup

MANILA, Philippines (22nd FIBA Asia Champions Cup): Smart Gilas prove too handy for KL Dragons. Chris Lutz and Joe Casio sparked a third quarter surge and the rest followed suit for the remainder for the game as hosts Smart Gilas won only their second game against a fellow SEABA team by beating ABL’s KL Dragons 95-64 on Sunday.

 

The only time Smart Gilas had played a SEABA team in FIBA Asia Champions Cup was when they won in Overtime against the then hosts Indonesia’s Satria Muda BritAma in the 2009 FIBA Asia Champions Cup at Jakarta.

For KL Dragons, it was baptism by fire in FIBA Asia competitions, pitted as they were against the home team acknowledged as one of the fastest combinations in entire FIBA Asia.

From a position of seemingly equal situation, Smart Gilas powered their way ahead outscoring the Dragons 26-9 in the third quarter.

Casio accounted for 8 points and Lutz 6 – the latter rested for the entire fourth quarter – both going on to finish with 10 points for the game.

“There was no problem as such,” Smart Gilas coach Rajko Toroman shrugged.

“It was just that we had not seen this team (KL Dragons) before and therefore some of our decisions in defense were wrong a little. But once we found our rhythm there was no stopping us,” the Serbian added.

Smart Gilas also became the first team in the competition to have all the players in their roster in a single game.

“Defensively I think we shut them out. That was the key,” Toroman added.

Asi Taulava, on loan from PBA team Meralco Bolts, led the defense with a dozen rebounds – 11 of them in the second half.

Naturalised Filipino Marcus Douthit missed a double double by one point (!) with a game-high 14 rebounds.

“We were completely outplayed (in the third quarter),” said Dragons coach Ariel Vanguardia.

“We are a very young team. And I am proud of the way we played at least in the first half,” Vanguardia, a Filipino, added.

Chris Ayer, inducted by Dragons, for this competition only a couple of days ago, led their scoring, as well as for the game with 31 points.