How RP 5 fared in Summit

LAS VEGAS — It was a familiar, if not annoying, refrain. Whenever the Philippine national basketball team moved around as a group outside the playing arena, passersby asked if they were soccer players. That’s because they looked too small to be cagers by US standards.

In fact, the Philippines was the smallest among 10 entries at the recent Global Hoops Summit held in the Cox Pavilion on the University of Nevada at Las Vegas campus.

Despite the size handicap, the Philippines acquitted itself creditably in the five-day competition and finished tied for sixth with a 2-3 record. No title was at stake but if organizers were to rank the final placings and use the quotient system to break ties,this would be the order:

1. BCI Edge (5-0) 2. SFX Sports (4-1) 3.Long Beach Jam (3-2, +49 quotient) 4.BDA Sports (3-2, +40) 5. Nigeria (3-2, -16) 6. ESM Sports (2-3, +5), 7. Philippines (2-3, -11) 8. Passing Lane Sports (2-3, -28) 9. BTG Express (1-4) 10. Aoshen of China (0-5).

The Philippines beat Aoshen, 80-65, and Long Beach, 93-92, but lost to Passing Lane by nine, BDA Sports by 17 and Nigeria by six.

The three setbacks were far from embarrassments. Against Passing Lane, the Philippines sputtered to a slow start and scored only five points in the first period but came back from 19 down to trim the gap to only five with 4:34 left. The Philippines cut a 13-point deficit to three early in the third period but ran out of gas in the homestretch to yield to BDA Sports but not after displaying some heroics–like Ren-Ren Ritualo sinking a 40-footer at the buzzer to end the first period and Dondon Hontiveros rifling in a 55-footer to close the second quarter.

Nigeria survived a scare and was only a point up early in the fourth period. But former Los Angeles Laker Ime Udoka came to the rescue in the late going as Nigeria nipped the Philippines in a game that saw eight lead changes.

Vegas Summer League director of business development Albert Hall awarded the official Summit game ball to national coach Chot Reyes in recognition of the Philippine team’s exceptional performance at the end of the meet.

Ritualo tallied a league high of seven triples against Passing Lane and hit the third highest single-game output of 27 points behind BDA Sports forward Harvey Thomas’ 39 and Aoshen star Huang Hai Bei’s 28. Two Filipinos made it to the top three circle in three-point percentage. First was BTG’s Justin Allen at .522 on 12-of-23. Second was Ritualo at .464 on 8-of-18 and third was Hontiveros at .462 on 6-of-13.

In the assists department, point guard Mike Cortez was No. 4 with 3.8 dishes a game behind No.1 Duan Chao (4.6), No. 2 Derrick Martin (4.3) and No. 3 Andre Joseph (4.0). Martin posted the league high of nine assists in a game. Cortez, God Shammgod of Passing Lane and Kamron Sufi of Long Beach had eight each in an outing. Only three players in the Summit compiled a total of at least 19 assists–Chao, Joseph and Cortez.

The Summit’s top scorer was Aoshen’s Huang Hai Bei who hit at a 23.1 clip. Three Filipinos averaged in double figures in scoring–Hontiveros (13.5), Ritualo (11.3) and Tony de la Cruz (10.4).

As a team, the Philippines shot .486 (142-292) from the floor, .382 (26-of-68) from three-point distance and .604 (55-of-91) from the line. It averaged 32.6 rebounds and 13.8 assists.

Six Filipinos shot at least .450 from the floor–Sonny Thoss at .636 (7-of-11), de la Cruz at .550 (22-of-40), Don Allado at .538 (7-of-13), Hontiveros at .522 (23-of-44), Ritualo at .512 (22-of-43) and Romel Adducul at .467 (14-of-30).

Adducul led the team in rebounding with 21 boards in five games for a 4.2 norm. He courageously battled bigger, taller and stronger opponents off the glass. Grabbing at least 15 rebounds were Kelly Williams (19), Kerby Raymundo (17), Cortez (16), de la Cruz (15) and Allado (15).

Cortez showed the way in assists with 19. Next were Jay-Jay Helterbrand with 10 and de la Cruz with nine.

Shooting at least 60 percent from the stripe were Rich Alvarez (.750), Ritualo (.714), Raymundo (.700), Cortez (.692), James Yap (.667) and de la Cruz (.667).

Three players logged at least 20 minutes a game. They were de la Cruz (24.4), Cortez (23.0) and Hontiveros (21.0). Reyes never benched a player unless injured and 10 players averaged at least 15 minutes a game, exhibiting a deep rotation.

Reyes said playing in the Summit was "a great step up" for the national pool because it simulated the grueling schedule of playing consecutive games in consecutive days in international competitions and provided quality opposition.

"We played against bigger and stronger teams made up of pros," said Reyes. "The positives are obvious. Our players got to know each other well on and off the court. The actual experience of playing against US teams will go a long way in building confidence. Then we got the chance to play a Chinese team with lots of size. The negative is some players couldn’t make it so we weren’t able to use certain combinations. But that’s the idea of a pool. We want all our players in the pool to work together and think one way so when we need to assemble a team for whatever international tournament, we’ll always be ready."

Assistant coach Tim Cone said a key lesson from the Summit was the players realizing how difficult it is to play day in, day out, how important it is to rest which takes a lot of self-discipline in Las Vegas and how critical it is to come out with energy and play to achieve.

"We went up against really good athletes," said Cone. "This is part of our long-term preparation. We’re not as physically gifted as some of those huge American athletes and that’s why we use up more energy to compete. Exhaustion and frustration sap your energy. We have to believe we can beat more athletic guys. Las Vegas was a great test of our discipline to stay away from those gaming tables and late nights. We set a curfew of 11 to 11:30 every night but we never checked on the players. They’re pros. They should know what to do and not to do to keep their energy level high for the games. The guys are learning, they’re stepping up."

Summit organizers said the Philippines will be invited to play again next year. It was evident that no team played with as much heart, determination and focus than the smallest entry in the Summit.

RP scoring averages — Hontiveros 13.5, Ritualo 11.3, de la Cruz 10.4, Cortez 7.8, Adducul 6.4, Helterbrand 6.4, Williams 5.8, Yap 5.0, Allado 3.6, Thoss 3.2, Raymundo 2.6, Alvarez 1.4, Mamaril 1.2.