RP belles smother Malaysians

MANILA, Philippines - Fil-Am Melissa Jacob sizzled from the outside while Cassandra Tioseco asserted her might underneath as the Philippines clobbered Malaysia, 59-39, to virtually seal a finals stint in the seventh SEABA Women’s Championship yesterday at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium.

JAcob uncorked three successive triples and Tioseco connected on a spin move to ignite a decisive 14-2 run at the start of the fourth canto that put the Discovery Perlas ng Pilipinas cagebelles safely ahead at 54-34 with 5:50 remaining.

The win was the second straight for the Filipinas, who practically assured themselves of a Top 2 spot in the five-team, single round-robin eliminations even if they lose their last two assignments, against Indonesia (1-2) at 4 p.m. today and defending Thailand (2-0) on Thursday.

“We still can’t be complacent even with this win, we have to go all out against Indonesia and Thailand,” said coach Haydee Ong, whose wards outrebounded Malaysia, 46-25, had more steals, 13-9, and shot better, 38 percent against the Malaysians’ 26 percent.

The hosts actually controlled the game right from the start, zooming to 32-24 tear in the third but allowed the visitors to close in at 30-32.

“The girls relaxed a bit after leading by eight points and lost their defense so I told them it shouldn’t be that way, we should continue to be aggressive because Malaysia won’t make it easy for us. The girls responded and that’s why we were able to pull away,” Ong said.

An 8-2 windup allowed RP to close the third with a 40-32 tear, afterwhich Jacob hit three straight from downtown, Merenciana Arayi followed with a trey of her own, and Tioseco scored inside to break the backs of the Malaysians. 

“Melissa’s three three-points really took the fight out of Malaysia and demoralized them,” said Ong.

The 6’0 Tioseco paced RP with 15 points and nine rebounds while Jacob added 15 markers on a 3-of-5 (60 percent) clip from rainbow country, and Arayi had 11.

Malaysia, which dropped to 1-2, was led by Pang Hui Pin’s 17.

Earlier, Thailand chalked up win No. 2 with a 118-50 thrashing of Indonesia.