TAIPEI – Powerade Team Pilipinas suffered a severe beating at the hands of reigning Asian champion Iran at the close of the 31st William Jones Cup basketball competition here yesterday, further raising doubts on the Nationals’ chances in the coming Asian world qualifier.
The Filipinos took a 60-85 blowout from the taller, heftier and deadlier Iranians and ended their Jones Cup campaign the way they started it – on a struggling note – which, for many, could be a portent of things to come in the FIBA-Asia championship firing off Aug. 6 in Tianjin, China.
The question is whether coach Yeng Guiao can still whip up the Nationals to a fighting, competitive team with just 10 days to go before the tough Asian meet.
RP-Powerade wound up with only two wins against six losses for sixth place, the worst finish by a PBA selection in the annual tournament.
“We’ll go back to Manila tomorrow (today) and we have a week to prepare for Tianjin. In one week, we have to make all the adjustments on offense and defense. We have three players (Jayjay Helterbrand, Mick Pennisi and James Yap) resting and we hope they will be well come August,” said Guiao.
“Iran is really tough to beat. But the important thing for us is to make the next level (quarterfinals). Kung matalo man tayo sa Iran, we have to finish fourth in our group. In the quarters, we won’t face Iran,” Guiao said.
With a shot at the crown, the Iranians came out in full throttle and badly outclassed the Filipinos.
Seven-foot-2 center Hamed Ehadadi, a mainstay of the Memphis Grizzlies in the NBA, powered his way to 19 points and 12 rebounds while sweet-shooting forwards Nikkah Bahrami and Hamed Afagh combined for seven-of-10 three-pointers to help demolish the Filipinos.
“We played with a complete lineup as we took this game very seriously. We have a chance to win the championship if we win the match so we considered the game as the championship match,” said Iran coach Veselin Matic.
“We gave this match much importance because we’d never won the Jones Cup championship,” Matic added.
The Iranians, steered by coach Rajko Toroman to the championship in the 2007 FIBA-Asia joust in Tokushima, Japan, buckled down to work early, dominating the Filipinos from start to finish.
“Iran played well and we had no solution on its size advantage. We shot badly from the three-point area and we didn’t play our best defense,” said Guiao. “To beat Iran, we have to shoot from the outside. We failed to do that in this game.”
In 2007, the Philippines pulled the rug from under Iran here but the Iranians had their revenge in the Tokushima meet.
Guiao started Sonny Thoss and Japeth Aguilar at center and forward spots but the two proved no match to the towering Ehadadi.
Asi Taulava and Ranidel de Ocampo took turns matching up against Ehadadi and both had little success, too.
Ehadadi, who triggered the melee in the Iran-Jordan tiff Thursday, had a skirmish with De Ocampo. Ehadadi hit De Ocampo on the nape in a rebound battle, then the Filipino got back in the ensuing play, landing a flying elbow on the Iranian’s face.