Virgin Islands thwarts RP trio

SINGAPORE – Virgin Islands gave the Philippines some sort of a clinic from the long range, hitting six triples, the last two defusing the RP cagers rally for a 34-28 victory in the 3-on-3 basketball competitions of the first Youth Olympic Games here yesterday.

Jeron Teng made a split with still 1:20 remaining in the two five-minute periods, pulling RP back into the game at 26-28 after trailing by as many as 12 points, the last at 12-21 at the end of the first.

But Rasheed Swanston broke free from a tight RP defense and launched two crippling triples, the first in the last 1:14 that gave Virgin Islands a five-point cushion, 31-26, and the other just seconds later, thus abruptly ending the contest.

Under 3-on-3 rules, the first team to score 33 points wins the match.

“They shot very well from the three-point area – six. So that’s 18 points – a lot for a 3-on-3 game,” said Team RP coach Mon Jose.

The Filipinos got clobbered off the board, 7-16, but shot better from the close range (10-of-21-48 percent against 8-of-18-44 percent). But they failed to translate Virgin Islands’ eight errors into points, missing a pair of crucial shots, including a Parks’ drive and a Teng turnover.

But it was the small, long haired Kadeem Jones who made things difficult for the Filipinos as the 5-8 shooter eluded his defenders to unload four triples, frustrating the RP bets no end.

The Pinoy cagers made three attempts from the long range, missing all of them and needed to lean on the steady hands of Teng from the line and the power of Bobby Ray Parks to get back into the contest.

Teng made all but one of his seven charities and finished with 12 points while the 6-5 Parks, son of the former many-time PBA best import awardee Bobby Parks, showed a lot of moves and wound up with eight points.

Cris Tolomia also failed to get going and added six points while Michael Pate had just one attempt which he made in a six-minute stint on the floor.

Jones topscored with 16 points while Swanston added eight for Virgin Islands, whose two 6-5s in Amadius der-Weer and Javier Martinez combined for 10 points.

The loss put RP into a must-win situation against a tall Spain side today with another setback virtually booting out the Filipinos from the quarterfinal race.

“Spain has a good shooter and they are taller. We have to defend and rebound better against them,” said Jose.

The top two in the five-team four groups will advance after a single round robin elims with Spain bouncing back with a 33-5 rout of South Africa after absorbing a stinging 27-29 setback to Croatia Sunday.

Virgin Islands also blasted South Africa, 28-12, to show the way in Group D with two wins.