Gilas escapes PBA All-Stars in lackluster outing

MANILA, Philippines – A week before the start of the 27th FIBA Asia Championship, Gilas Pilipinas dished out a performance that hardly impressed the watching crowd, much more head coach Chot Reyes.

The Nationals played flat in the first three quarters and needed a fourth-quarter onslaught to repulse the PBA Stars, 99-87, in a My Phone-sponsored tune-up match at the MOA Arena in Pasay Thursday night.

“I thought we’re making progress. But what we showed tonight was a huge step back,” rued Reyes. “I hope we choked just because we’re too tight playing our first game on home soil after our New Zealand training.”

Reyes specifically named Jayson Castro, Marc Pingris and LA Tenorio as the players who performed terribly.

“That’s the reason why I benched Jayson in the second half. Jayson, LA, Marc really, really played bad. We could have lost the game if not for Jimmy (Alapag),” said Reyes.

“We’ve talked about being accountable to our performance. If you don’t perform, your name would be called out,” Reyes also said.

“Only two ways. It’s either it gets them down or fired up. I’m banking on the latter. I hope it’s gonna be different Friday,” the outspoken Gilas coach added.

Ranidel de Ocampo, Larry Fonacier, Gabe Norwood and Alapag teamed up in a decisive 27-4 fourth-quarter assault allowing Gilas Pilipinas to cut loose from a tight seesawing game en route to the 12-point win.

Junmar Fajardo put in his contribution on the defensive end and on the boards, giving the Gilas bench tactician the luxury to rest naturalized player Marcus Douthit the entire fourth quarter.

De Ocampo top scored for Gilas with 16 points with David, Jeff Chan, Norwood and Douthit chipping in at least 11 each for the Nationals who play Kazakhstan at 7 p.m. Friday over at the Smart Araneta Coliseum for the team’s final warm-up game for the Asian meet beginning Aug. 1.

“I hope things would be different Friday. We screwed up tonight. The way we played if it were against Jordan or Chinese Taipei, we would have been down by 20 at the half,” said Reyes.

The PBA Stars took the half at 41-38, banking on a better field shooting (36 percent as against Gilas’ 34 percent) and more efficient job off the boards, 23-22.

De Ocampo, David, Fonacier, Alapag and Norwood hit their strides in the fourth quarter, though, and Gilas ended up with a 12-of-26 three-point shooting and 31-of-66 total field goals.

De Ocampo, David, Fonacier and Alapag nailed a trey each in the key 27-4 exchange that opened a 94-70 lead for Gilas with a little over four minutes left to play.

A holdover from the last FIBA Asia tourney, De Ocampo made an earlier three-pointer, giving the Nationals a 65-61 lead after the first three quarters.

The Franz Pumaren-mentored PBA Stars were paced by Arwind Santos with 21 points with Chris Tiu, Paul Lee and KG Canaleta adding at least 13 apiece.