ANOTHER ENDGAME BREAKDOWN FOR GILAS
Gilas Pilipinas led Iran by seven points in the last six minutes of play but scored only three the rest of the way in an endgame fold-up, allowing the Iranians to get away with a 68-63 win at the close of Group E preliminary play in the 17th Asian Games in Incheon, Korea Wednesday.
Iran thus landed a spot in Group G while Team PHL found itself in Group H for the quarterfinal round that starts Thursday.
Gilas Pilipinas looked headed for the win against Iran but ran into a maze of errors and misses, and suffered the deflating loss going to the quarters.
“I’m upset because we lost a game we should’ve won, and we lost a game on our own mistakes,” rued Gilas coach Chot Reyes after the game.
“We gotta be better than that. We have to be smarter than that,” added Reyes, pointing out unforced errors “killed us.”
With Marcus Douthit nursing fouls on the bench, June Mar Fajardo was put on the spotlight versus Hamed Haddadi and, unfortunately, blew an opportunity to beat the Iranian giant.
By the time Douthit checked back, Gilas had blown away its 60-53 advantage and was already down 60-61.
The Filipinos actually regained the upper hand at 63-61 on free throws by Paul Lee and Gabe Norwood.
But Nikkhah Bahrami took charge for Iran at the finish, breaking down the defense of Marc Pingris for five straight markers that sent the Iranians ahead at 66-63 with time down to 22.3 seconds.
The Filipinos eventually yielded the game as Marcus Douthit missed an uncontested three-point shot in the last three seconds.
“Douthit shouldn’t have shot that, but that was the shot Iran was willing to give up,” said Reyes on their final possession where the Iranians clamped down on the Filipino gunners.
Lee led Gilas with 11 points but missed two important three-point shots in the crunch.
LA Tenorio added 10 markers, including back-to-back treys in a crucial Gilas run in the third period giving the Filipinos a first seven-point lead at 51-44.
Gilas actually got off to a slow start but picked up a good rhythm in the second period and rallied to within two, 34-36, at the half.
Gilas could have even pulled ahead at the half if not for two errors by Fajardo in the final 30 seconds.
Fajardo was earlier whistled for a three-second violation and then fumbled a pass by Norwood on a transition play.
Down 17-28 after the first period, the Nationals rallied to within two at the half in limiting the Iranians to seven points on 3-of-17 field clip in the second quarter. (SB)
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