Nationals bow to superior Lithuanian team

MANILA, Philippines - LSU-Baltai, a team whose game and style resemble with those of Asian squads, ended Gilas Pilipinas’ perfect run in its Lithuanian tune-up series as the Kaunas-based Lithuanian club team toppled Team Phl, 89-86, Sunday night at the Svyturio Arena.

Vidmantas Sragauskis rained treys on the Filipinos with five and wound up with a total of 23 points on top of five rebounds as LSU-Baltai handed the Filipinos their first loss following the latter’s back-to-back victories over Klaipedos-Neptunas and Birstono Jazz Direnta.

“Talo, 89-86. Just like that week 1 is done. 9 practices, 3 games. Now d tediousness, homesickness & fatigue are kicking in. How do we react?” said Gilas coach Chot Reyes on his Twitter page.

But, of course, that’s what their Lithuanian training is all about.

The Nationals play three more games before leaving their Lithuanian camp for a Tokyo series against the Japanese national team.

Up next for Gilas is Lithuania’s Under-20 national team, the defending FIBA Euro U-20 champions. The Nationals slug it out with the Lithuanian junior team for two straight games before getting another crack at LSU-Baltai.

The Nationals didn’t do badly against the LSU-Baltai team but failed to keep up with the Lithuanians’ torrid shooting.

“Got our first loss to this great shooting team. We will face similar teams in FIBA-Asia. Got to take the lessons to heart,” said Gilas assistant coach Josh Reyes.

LSU-Baltai provided glimpses of sweet-shooting Asian teams like Korea, Chinese Taipei, Jordan and Lebanon, nailing 15 triples. Curiously, the Lithuanians made less conversion from the two-point zone with 11.

Before the game, Reyes described LSU-Baltai as “not as tall as the last two teams but said to be a team of shooters.”

The Filipinos’ scouting report proved to be right with Sragauskis, Arunas Sakalauskas, Sarunas Vingelis, Arunas Vasiliauskas, Zygimantas Skucas and Laimonas Miksys combining for 15-of-41 triples for the Lithuanian squad that used to feature former NBA star Zydrunas Ilgauskas.

Even then, Gilas kept the game close, even taking the half at 49-41.

Meanwhile, Jordan has opened its own training camp in Karpenisi, Greece – the home country of new Jordan coach Vangelis Aleksandris.

“Karpenisi is a great location. I have started the training of many of my teams in the past here and the results invariably have been fantastic,” said Aleksandris on an Internet report.

“Our team is very young. I am not scared of that, because we have done an excellent job in preparation. I thank all my colleagues and the federation for accepting the proposal to train at Karpenisi,” he said.

South Korea has also stepped up its training at home in Seoul with coach Yoo Jae-Hak having narrowed down his pool members to 16.

 Yoo expressed no fear falling in the same grouping with China and Iran.

“Iran and China are the teams to beat in this competition. We’ll have to beat them at some stage in the play-offs if we have to reach our goal of finishing on top. Therefore it’s a big advantage to play both of them so early in the tournament,” said Yoo on fibaasia.net.