Smart Gilas-Pilipinas beats Japan; enters Jones Cup semis

Source : Jaemark Tordecilla, InterAKTV

For the first 30 minutes of the game, the SMART-Gilas Pilipinas national team was flirting with disaster, trailing hot-shooting Japan, a young squad that had seemed to be gaining confidence as the tournament went on.
But veteran guard Dondon Hontiveros nailed two three-pointers in a blistering 9-0 salvo to open the fourth quarter, and the Philippine team kept the young Japanese at bay for the rest of the period en route to a 94-78 victory that assured the Filipinos a seat in the semifinals of the 2011 Jones Cup in Taipei.
SMART-Gilas sizzled for 29 points in the fourth quarter while limiting Japan to just ten points in the period. Hontiveros, a grizzled international campaigner who has represented the Philippines in Asian competition in 2002 and 2007, scored 12 of his 14 points in the fourth quarter.
But the lopsided final score does not indicate just how well Japan competed against SMART-Gilas, which was missing the services of spitfire point guard Jayvee Casio.
Japan’s own hotshot guard K.J. Matsui burned the hoops, scoring 27 points on 8-of-8 three-point shooting. The smaller and quicker Japanese buried seven three-pointers in the first half to take a five-point lead at the break.
In a rare twist, SMART-Gilas found itself with a significant frontcourt edge, and promptly took advantage. Naturalized center Marcus Douthit was a source of power throughout the game, scoring 32 points and grabbing 18 rebounds against his smaller Japanese counterparts.
The Japanese faltered in the fourth quarter, after Hontiveros caught fire and SMART-Gilas turned up the defensive effort. Chris Tiu and Mark Barroca, who were filling in for Casio, ably quarterbacked the team while anchoring the team’s backcourt pressure defense, which caused a lot of trouble for Japan.
Tiu and Marcio Lassiter each scored 11 points and grabbed five rebounds for SMART-Gilas, which finished the preliminary round with a 5-2 win-loss record. Their semifinal round opponent will be determined by the outcome of the South Korea-Chinese Taipei game, which was being played late Friday.
Fumio Nishimura had 11 points, while Japanese-American youngster Sean Hinkley had eight points for Japan, which bowed out of the competition with a 3-4 slate.
The scores:
PHILIPPINES 94 – Douthit 32, Hontiveros 14, Tiu 11, Lassiter 11, Lutz 9, Barroca 8, Aguilar 7, Taulava 2, Baracael 0, Ballesteros 0.
JAPAN 78 – Matsui 27, Nishimura 11, Okada 9, Hinkley 8, Ota 7, Shonaka 5, Togashi 5, Ito 4, Yue 2, Sakai 0, Kamada 0, Noguchi 0.
Quarters: 24-20; 44-49; 65-68; 94-78