Gilas Phl opens Asiad quest vs scrappy India

INCHEON, South Korea – The fighting Smart Gilas takes the first of two wins it needs to advance to the quarterfinals and eventually to the medal rounds as it launches its ambitious goal to win the country’s first-ever gold medal since 1962 at the start of the second round of the Asian Games basketball competitions. 

The Smart Gilas five, minus World Cup star Andray Blatche but with veteran Marcus Douthit in harness, collides with India at 2 p.m. today at the Hwaseong Sports Gymnasium.

The Philippines has been seeded in Group D with Iran. Both teams are joined by Group B winner India, which topped the first preliminaries among four teams in Group B via the tiebreaker.

India defeated Kazakhstan, 80-61, in a showdown at the close of the preliminaries late yesterday and forced a three-way tie for first with Kazakhstan and Saudi Arabia on 2-1 win-loss slates.

After the tiebreaker, India finished first and Kazakhstan second. Saudi Arabia was eliminated along with winless Palestine.

Kazakhstan joins China and Chinese Taipei in Group C, Group A top finisher Kuwait is bunched with Korea and Jordan in Group D, and Group A leader Mongolia is the third team in Group F with Japan and Qatar.

The top two from each group advance to the quarterfinals set Sept. 27-29.

With a win over India today, Smart Gilas can afford to lose to Iran on Sept. 25 provided India also loses to Iran tomorrow.

The Indians could be going into the game already spent from the physical three-game preliminaries where they beat Palestine (89-49), Saudi Arabia (73-67) and Kazakhstan but the Filipinos will enter the match hardly shaken off the rust after a much-needed rest from the World Cup in Spain.

The Smart Gilas team had its last workout yesterday at 4 p.m. at the Sondong High School training center as national coach Chot Reyes mapped out last-minute plans versus India.

Although his assistant coaches Josh Reyes, Jong Uichico, Tad Baldwin and Ryan Gregorio had scouted the Group B games, Reyes said his team is ready for any of them.

“Our players are all in shape and are ready,” said Reyes during the team’s first practice day Monday. “Of course, we are not taking our opponents for granted. The pressure is still on us to win.”

India led, 24-14, 47-31, 69-50, 80-61, on the 25 points of Joginder Singh, 18 of Bhriguvanshi Vishes and 15 of Amritpal Singh.

While the Indians have only three big scorers to carry them through the second round, the Philippines boasts of a balanced offense with a combination of tall and small players in Douthit, captain Jimmy Alapag, LA Tenorio, Gary David, Jeff Chan, Paul Lee, JunMar Fajardo, Marc Pingris, Japeth Aguilar, Jared Dillinger, Ranidel de Ocampo, Gabe Norwood with Jay Washington as reserve.