By Jesus A. Garcia Jr.

 

THE talk in Philippine sports last week was about the two-day basketball skirmishes of the FIBA World Cup Asia qualifying sixth window hosted by our country both held at the 50,000 seater Philippine Arena in Bocaue, Bulacan. We, ardent buffs of basketball, watched on TV last February 24 how our national squad “Gilas” convincingly repulsed the visiting Lebanon quintet called “Cedars”, 107-96, to the thunderous delight of the dominant pro-Filipino crowd. Yes, the victory of our Philippine squad was a sweet revenge against Lebanon after their faceoff last August with the taller Lebanese team edging the Philippine nationals, 85-81, in the fourth window of FIBA Asia held in Beirut, Lebanon despite the inclusion of Filipino-American NBA’s standout Jordan Clarkson of Utah Jazz for the Philippines five.  And last February 24, we keenly noted how the Lebanese scored the first basket, 2-0, with the Philippine team tying them up immediately, 2-2, then overtook their foe, 5-2.

The Philippines quintet played its finest game dropping a record 17 triples spearheaded by Filipino naturalized citizen Justin Brownlee and led as many as 24 points and never relinquished the front up to the sound of the final buzzer.  It was Brownlee’s first time to wear the national colors in international competition and it turned out to be a rousing debut for him as did not disappoint the adoring Filipino fans. He displayed his scintillating tireless 39 minutes of hustle play to lead the Philippine squad scoring 17 points, spiked by two treys both done in the first quarter with five assists, four rebounds and two steals. “The Philippines shows so much love to me. I just want to do my best and do whatever I can to try and give some of it back,” said Brownlee after the game. Despite the loss, the former Asian champion Lebanon still leads the Asian tourney with 7-3 win-loss mark.

“Expect the unexpected” as the cliché says, when the heavily favored Philippine quintet unexpectedly succumbed to a pulsating 91-90 defeat against the lowly rated Jordan national team called “Falcons” also held at the Philippine Arena last February 27. They previously defeated Jordan, 75-66, last November at Jordan’s home court in Amman City during the FIBA World Cup Asia qualifying fifth window. Although Brownlee obviously doubled his effort against Jordan, scoring a monstrous game high 41 points and 12 rebounds, but these were not enough to beat the determined Jordanians and tied Philippines, 6-4, in the final standings of Group E.  Despite this, Jordan versus the Philippine tussle not being shown on TV, I managed to watch it on YouTube and saw how the visiting Jordanians impressively knocked down 12 three pointers to lead by as many as 25 points, 41-16, in the first half while Philippines misfired numerous three-point attempts unlike their game against Lebanon last February 24. I believe one of the factors of the Philippines scrambling performance was the loose defense by the home crew and maybe because of being over self-confident. Yes, the Philippines quintet got its momentum in the second half with Brownlee rifling in 17 points in the third quarter alone to orchestrate a 23-10 romp that put the home team with a mere six-point deficit, 72-66, to the delight of the roaring crowd. Philippines even tied the score twice, first at 81-81 all, 5:28 minutes remaining and 88-88 few seconds left, but the spirited Jordanians scored three while the Philippines converted two points, respectively. Although Ray Parks missed the buzzer-beating shot, one of the biggest factors of the Philippines squad defeat that I saw was the two free throws flub of PBA’s veteran player Scottie Thompson in the dying seconds of the game that could have sealed the victory for Philippines.
Yes, it was tit-for-tat for Jordan and Philippines.

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QUOTE OF THE WEEK: “But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind,. And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you; for you shall be repaid at the resurrection of the just.” LUKE 14: 13-14

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