Smart Gilas II toys with young, depleted Taiwan

TAIPEI – Smart Gilas II enjoyed a good workout ahead of its tough matches in the 34th William Jones Cup International Basketball Tournament, tearing apart Chinese Team B squad, 99-68, at the TPEC Gymnasium here yesterday.

Already inferior in talent and experience, the Taiwanese further put themselves at a disadvantage in sitting out four players who reported late for their morning practice.

Unaware of coach Chou Chun-San’s disciplinary action, the Filipinos came out as planned, virtually staging a clinic for the young, raw Taiwanese side on the way to scoring a follow-up to their 88-78 win over Jordan Saturday.

They take a break today before returning into action versus Korea tomorrow, starting a killer run of six straight tough matches.

Earlier in the day, Korea, again drawing tremendous boost from imports Juan Patillo and Garrett Stutz, thumped Lebanon, 94-78, also for its second straight win.

“Knowing that we’re playing a team younger than we are, the objective was not to be outworked and not to lose on hustle departments. We made sure to get the rebounds and run the fastbreaks,” said national coach Chot Reyes.

“That’s what happened with the youngest guy on our team giving us a big spark,” Reyes added.

Garvo Lanete, a product of San Beda’s winning program, finally made his debut with Gilas, sizzling with a team-high 21 points that went with four rebounds, four steals and three assists in 22 minutes of action.

“Pagod pa yon (He’s tired at that) since he did laundry duty (Saturday night) being a rookie,” said Reyes.

As in their game versus Jordan, Reyes rotated 12 men, all playing almost equal minutes.

Marcus Douthit, Joachim Thoss and JayR Reyes manned the middle alternately, combining for 27 points and 22 rebounds.

The gunners fared as well with Lanete, Larry Fonacier, Jeff Chan, Gary David and LA Tenorio going 7-of-15 from beyond the arc together.