RP cagers up vs Korean shooters

BUSAN, South Korea — The Philippine team lost the battle for turf to the walking Great Walls of China and now must defend its outside territory against the peppery Korean shooters.

Their inside game pounded no end by the 7-foot-5 Yao Ming and the 6-foot-9 Menk Bateer, the Filipinos absorbed a 51-92 pounding at the hands of the defending champion Tuesday that sent the Nationals to a deadly duel with the South Koreans on Saturday.

That confrontation should relive the once storied rivalry between the two nations on Asiad wars that has been since shelved when the sleeping giant that was China awoke and stomped on the rest beginning in 1986 in Seoul.

And it will be a duel that will determine whether the Philippines, now beefed up by Fil-Ams, would improve on the bronze it won four years ago or scramble to earn another one for some measure of respect back home.

"All our efforts now will be concentrated on South Korea and I am sure all their efforts will be confined on that Saturday game," said national coach Jong Uichico.

The Koreans are battling Kazakhstan at presstime for the top berth in their group in the quarterfinals but the hosts should have no problem hurdling the scrappy team from a former Soviet republic.

Allaying fears that the horrendous loss to the Chinese would deal a psychological blow to the mental make-up of the team, Uichico said that they had no illusion of beating the Chinese long before they broke camp at the training facility in the Moro Lorenzo Complex.

"I don’t think the defeat will affect us so much because even before we left for the Asian Games we knew that China would be a tough team to beat," he said.

Although they held their own in defense in the first 20 minutes of play, the Filipinos were hard-pressed putting up a decent offensive run and they were eventually reduced to a gang that couldn’t shoot straight right in the first quarter.

They struggled with only four field goals out of 21 attempts and finished the half with eight of 34 for 23.5 shooting clip while the Chinese had 52 percent on 13 of 25.

"We just couldn’t shoot," rued Uichico.

So anemic were the Filipinos’ offensives nobody hit in double figures with Dennis Espino topscoring for the team with only seven points.

Veterans like Kenneth Duremdes and Danny Ildefonso simply disappeared like items in a nearby "Lost and Found" window.

But Uichico said the coming showdown with the Koreans will be entirely different, one that will not be decided underneath but from the perimeter and quartercourt.

"It will be a completely new ballgame. Against China, we played a team dominant inside. Against Korea, we will play one dominant in the perimeter. We must stop their perimeter game," said Uichico.

The Koreans teem with aggressive and fine outside shooters in Moon Kyun Eun, Bang Soon Yoon, Chun Hee Chul and Lee Sang Min and then there is their prized pivotman Seo Jang Hoon whom the 6-foot-9 Fil-Tongan Asi Taulava will surely find his hands full.

ASIAD NOTES: PBA Commissioner Jun Bernardino has kept his place on the side of the RP bench each game and giving the players a high-five… The wives of Uichico and Jeffrey Cariaso — Kathy Uichico and Michelle Yuzon Cariaso – were permanent fixtures on the stand during RP games together with Eric Menk’s sister Michelle and friend Dinky Amores… For the first time, Fidel Mangonon, the amiable PBA stats man, seemed irrelevant in the media room after the RP-China game as he gingerly pushed a piece of paper full of stats to Filipino scribes and nobody bothered to look up…. The stats read turnovers RP 19, China 16; pts off turnovers RP 10, China 35; fastbreak attempts RP 12, China 17; and fastbreak points RP 8, China 25.