Lebanese manhandle RP cagers

TAIPEI – Powerade Team Pilipinas learned another neat lesson last night in the 31st William Jones Cup basketball competition – this time from Lebanon and its prolific American recruits.

Lebanon, qualifier in the 2002 world championship in Indianapolis and runner-up in the last FIBA-Asia championship, clobbered Powerade-RP, 95-83, for a fourth win against one loss in this nine-day, nine-nation event.

Beaten by Jordan Monday, Lebanon was back on the run with back-to-back victories over Kazakhstan and the Philippines following the arrival of Jackson Vroman and Brian Feghali.

Vroman, a two-year NBA veteran who has just been naturalized to take over from Joe Vogel, and Feghali, a US-born Lebanese who played for Louisiana State, combined for 53 points and 17 rebounds against the Filipinos.

Star forward Fadi El Khatib and heady point guard Rony Fahed also delivered for the Lebanese who got off to a jackrabbit start and weathered repeated rallies by the Filipinos.

The Filipinos suffered a fourth loss against a lone win but made a good impression in this contest.

“I see something from the Philippine team for my players but I will keep it to myself. They have good players. It’s difficult to play them because they react differently in situations,” said Lebanon coach Dragan Raca of the Filipinos.

“I knew it’s a new team, and the players are working to develop chemistry. I believe the Philippines would become a good team,” Raca added.

Feghali said the Philippines was among teams which had given them a tough challenge here.

But he considered China and Iran as the heavy favorites, Lebanon, Qatar and Jordan the tough challengers and the Philippines, Korea and Japan the dark horses in the coming Asian meet.

For the Filipinos, a positive note in defeat was the fact that they even outrebounded the Lebanese, 36-28, and they continued to improve on three-point shooting.

Mick Pennisi debuted here with three triples that went with one rebound and one block in 17 minutes of action.

The Nationals totaled 11 treys — their biggest in five games — with Jayjay Helterbrand also firing three, Willie Miller two, and James Yap, Gabe Norwood and Arwind Santos one apiece.

“I think we had too many turnovers. We had a chance to win the game but we beat ourselves with our errors,” said RP team coach Yeng Guiao.

“We committed 27 turnovers and we sent them to the line 32 times as against our 15 foul shots. It was in those departments that we lost the game,” Guiao added. “But those are well within our control. That’s our fault which we can correct.”

Vroman and Feghali buckled down to work early with the former firing 17 points and the latter 16 as the Lebanese took the half at 50-42.