Baldwin: We came here to win the gold

CHANGSHA – Gilas Pilipinas went on a scary rollercoaster ride through the first 30 minutes before its old vanguards built the needed momentum on the way to an 81-70 victory over the resilient Japan side and into the gold-medal game of the 2015 FIBA Asia Championship here Friday night.

Dondon Hontiveros and Jayson Castro frolicked on the offensive end while Marc Pingris, Gabe Norwood and Ranidel de Ocampo formed the backbone on defense as Team Phl outfought Japan in the payoff period and made the finals of the biennial Asian meet for the second straight time.

The Philippines and China, with 20 crowns between the two of them, square off in a first ever FIBA Asia title confrontation at 8:30 p.m. Saturday night.

“We didn’t come here to play in the final. We came here to win the gold,” said Gilas coach Tab Baldwin.

The victory also gave the Nationals a crack at an automatic berth in the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

Team Phl reigned supreme four times from 1960 to 1973 before China rose to become the region’s most dominant team.

China stayed on track in a bid to re-establish itself as Asian basketball kingpin as the host team ripped Iran, 70-57, in their highly charged semifinal faceoff at the Changsha Social Work College Gymnasium.

Drawing tremendous support from a virtual sixth man in the home crowd, the Chinese churned out a solid, amazing game on both ends of the court and stretched their hot unbeaten run all the way to the gold-medal game.

The Filipinos, meanwhile, made it seven in a row and twice over the Japanese in four nights largely behind the wondrous shooting of Castro and Hontiveros.

Castro drained 20 points including four triples while Hontiveros piled up 18 points on a sizzling 6-of-9 three-point shooting.

De Ocampo and Norwood had their key efforts that helped Gilas make crucial separation at endgame.

The Filipinos were still holding a shaky lead at 72-68 when De Ocampo scored on a putback then Norwood had two steals, the first one parlayed by Hontiveros into a trey that made it 77-68 with time down to 1:23.

And the Filipino gallery, led by SBP president Manny V. Pangilinan, started the celebration, high-fiving one another as the Philippines got a shot at ending a 25-year title drought in this tourney.

The Japanese put up a whale of a fight on an explosive 28-point game by Makoto Hiejima complemented by an 18-point and 16-rebound job by Joji Takeuchi.

It didn’t help that the Gilas rookies played erratic in this contest.

Andray Blatche carried the fight for Gilas early on before Castro and Hontiveros took over when they really needed to.

Hontiveros, the Gilas skipper, started firing away towards the end of the second quarter, rifling in two treys in a 10-4 tear that forged a 39-all tie at the half.

Gilas seemed to build momentum midway through the third, taking a 54-46 lead before running in a maze of errors and misses, allowing Japan to catch up at 54 going into the final period.

Early on, with Iran threatening within six at 52-58, the Chinese clamped down on the Iranians to regain a safe lead before eventually ending their rivals’ reign in the biennial Asian meet.

“This win has a significant meaning,” said Chinese coach Gong Luming through an interpreter.

“It’s a battle of contrasting styles and a battle between an experienced team versus a young, determined team. We won and I hope we continue to get going,” Gong also said.

Young stars Zhou Peng and Ding Yanyuhang teamed up with old mainstay Yi Jianlian to anchor China’s methodical beating of 7-foot-2 behemoth Hamed Haddadi and his teammates.

From the 58-52 count, the Chinese held the Iranians to a single field-goal conversion in a five-minute stretch to pull away at 68-52.

The scores:

Philippines 81 – Blatche 22, Castro 20, Hontiveros 18, De ocampo 8, Abueva 6, Romeo 3, Pingris 2, Norwood 2, Ganuelas 0, Thoss 0.

Japan 70 – Heijima 28, Takeuchi 18, Tabuse 9, Ota 5, Furukawa 4, Arao 3, Tanaka 2, Hirose 1, Hashimoto 0, Matsui 0, Ono 0.

Quarterscores: 16-17, 39-39, 54-54, 81-70