World admiration won

By Al S. Mendoza

 

WE won one but it felt like we were 4-1.

That’s the story of Gilas Pilipinas in the Fiba World Cup of basketball.

Because of bad breaks and indiscretions, we lost the golden chance to advance to the Round of 16 quarterfinals.

There are 24 countries in the Fiba Worlds grouped into four brackets of 6 nations each, with Croatia, Greece, Argentina, Puerto Rico and Senegal bunched with us.

We lost virtually won games against Croatia, Argentina and Puerto Rico – losing truthfully to Greece, whose giants literally swatted away our shots for an 82-70 win.

But before that, we had a won game against Croatia but, bizarrely, we blew it away.

We had control of the game against the Croats and had a win on the fingertips of Jeff Chan.

Sadly, Chan missed a game-winning shot at regulation.

Before launching the missile, Chan was the best Filipino gunner with 17 points across his name.

With the score tied at 71, Chan fired from right.

The world watched with bated breadth as the ball sailed way up, only to hit the front rim and bounced out at the buzzer.

While Chan’s chance to rewrite history evaporated, Gilas Pilipinas flubbed a big bid to nail an ego-boosting win.

We still had golden opportunities in the five-minute overtime but, as I said, bad breaks hounded us aided by, unfortunately again, by a crucial non-call by the referees.

Jason Castro had the tying shot in his hands but, as he unleashed it, he got fouled, causing him to lose balance firing from left flank.

The ball hit glass, short of the goal, before Castro

hit the floor, waiting for a whistle against his guard.

There was none.

And Croatia escaped with an 81-78 decision, avoiding the embarrassment of losing to the “smallest team” in the tournament.

After our loss to Greece, again we almost won our third game – this time against Argentina, no less than the world No. 3 bannered by the NBA’s Scola and Nocioni.

We lost 81-85 but not after giving Argentina the biggest scare of its life, with Jimmy Alapag firing 5 triples, three of them in the crucial fourth quarter where Gilas wowed the crowd with triples and twinners raining on the court.

Against Puerto Rico, we had the game by the neck anew, only to sputter in the end to throw away a 73-77 setback as coach Chot Reyes inexplicably benched Gary David and June Mar Fajardo against an undermanned Puerto Rico playing with only 9 healthy players.

The loss knocked us out of contention, but it did not deter us from eking out an 81-79 overtime win against Senegal on five free throws by Alapag in the final 45 seconds.

Alapag, who has said the Fiba Worlds would be his last international tournament, finished with a game-high 18 points like Andray Blatche, who fouled out with 1:55 left.

And the 6’10” Fajardo?  He had 15 points and missed a double-double with his 9 rebounds.

We won one game, yes, but in our heart of hearts, we won the world’s admiration.

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