Smart Gilas bows to Syria

DUBAI – Smart Gilas Pilipinas fought hard in the absence of naturalization candidate Jamal Sampson but couldn’t find a way to neutralize Al Jalaa-Syria’s size, suffering a 76-90 defeat at the start of its campaign in the Dubai Invitational at the Al-Ahli Sports Complex here Friday.

Cheered on by overseas Filipino workers here, JV Casio, though still smarting from a contusion, carried the bulk of the fight for the RP squad, pouring in 23 points.

The absence of the 6-foot-11 Sampson, however, exacted a heavy toll on the Filipinos who were badly beaten by the Syrians’ tall American reinforcements at the paint.

Filipino-American Marcio Lassiter, Mac Baracael, Japeth Aguilar and Jason Ballesteros tried to plug the gaping hole left by Sampson by chipping in at least 10 points each.

Sampson complained of pain in his knees and decided not to play only during the pre-game warm-up, further making Smart Gilas short-handed.

The team flew in here minus Rabeh Al Hussaini and Aldrech Ramos.

“Games here are difficult as we’re facing teams with three reinforcements each. We will not do well playing without a big guy,” said RP’s Serbian coach Rajko Toroman.

“Sampson said he had some sort of knee injury and we’re shocked. We started bad and had a hard time getting into the groove,” Toroman also said.

The Syrians opened with a 13-0 run and went on to hack out an emphatic victory.

Bernie Atienza, Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas deputy executive director, said they would send Sampson to the doctors for re-evaluation, hoping he could suit up against Champville of Lebanon Saturday.

“Officially, we’ll have to verify tomorrow (Saturday). We’re still hoping he could play tomorrow and the rest of the games here,” said Atienza, the highest SBP official here since executive director Noli Eala was expected to arrive only Friday afternoon.

Smart Gilas captain Chris Tiu said he was disappointed with the development.

“Of course, it was disappointing because we were hoping the team will be complete. Beforehand in games against Qatar and practice games here, we knew he would play,” said Tiu.

“He should be providing us the rebounds and interior defense, and then we’ll just know that he will not play. It would have been better if he said it earlier and not decided just during the warm up,” Tiu added.

“It was really disappointing but on the positive side, everyone really fought hard. Balle (Ballesteros) was undersized but he really fought hard as well as the whole team to show that we will fight whatever the odds are.”

The Filipinos didn’t give up easily as Aguilar went into a dunking spree to help the team get into the game.

And after skipper Chris Tiu and Baracael drained a pair of booming triples, RP finally equalized at 29-all midway in the second quarter.

But it turned out to be the Filipinos’ last hurrah as the Syrians closed the quarter with a 14-5 exchange to go into the break with a 43-34 lead.

Then the Syrians went into attack mode in the third canto as they pounded it inside to lead by as many as 26 points twice, the last at 74-48 to end the period.

Notes: More than a thousand Filipinos paid 20 dirham, or P240, to watch and cheer for Smart Gilas. Ricky Ong, who is working in one of the oil companies here, said he’s a big fan of the team since he saw it play when he was in the Philippines last October. “I saw them last October after Typhoon Ondoy playing in the PBA and I’ve been a huge fan since then. I’m glad I have a chance to see them play again here in Dubai,” said Ong...Except for RP and Mahram of Iran, all the names released by the organizing UAE basketball association were all in Arabic...The English-speaking game barker, who happens to be a Filipino, couldn’t help himself and at one point in the match egged the Filipinos in Filipino to cheer for Smart Gilas. “Wala ba kayong mga kamay dyan?” he said.