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JAKARTA—At
one point, the Harbour Centre-Philippine team faced the
specter of finishing the Southeast Asian Basketball
Association Champions Cup below its expectations.
In the
end, however, the Nationals—lineup decimated and
all—were able to dig themselves out of a hellhole. And
even if somebody else was already sitting on their
throne, they proved in their own way they were still the
team to be reckoned with in the tournament.
Jason
Castro led a balanced Harbour Centre attack with 21
points, and the Philippines bounced back from a
spirit-deflating loss the previous day to beat National
Basketball League-Malaysia, 89-79, Sunday at the Satria
Mudra-Britama Arena.
Indonesia
took away Harbour Centre’s championship Saturday, fully
exploiting its import advantage over the Filipinos in a
93-85 score. It appeared Malaysia was going to deal the
Philippines a déjà vu Sunday after it took a thin, but
nonetheless tense, two-point lead at halftime.
Then
Castro worked his magic yet again and his teammates
finally found their perimeter game cooperating with them
this time, as the Nationals raced to a 29-19 scoring
binge in the third quarter to take over the driver’s
seat for good.
Proving
the Filipino basketball talent was still superior
against its Southeast Asian neighbors, Harbour Centre
won the game playing with only one foreign reinforcement
who wasn’t even on the floor much while it faced
credentialed imports from
Malaysia.
“I think
the team adjusted well with the roster handicap,”
Harbour Centre owner Mikee Romero said, referring to the
Sam Ekwe hullabaloo. “When we were playing Indonesia,
the team was still feeling the emotional effects of
Sam’s absence. But we were able to adapt better against
Malaysia.”
And the
Nationals were able to shoot better as well. For the
first time in three games, somebody else taller than six
feet was hot on his outside stroke.
Jonathan
Fernandez ably backed up the diminutive duo of Castro
and TY Tang with his long-range bombs as he buried four
three-pointers that pushed Harbour Centre back in front
in the third. Fernandez led a bench production that had
a 29-5 scoring advantage versus Malysia.
But it
was Castro’s kamikaze forays, spiced with a little
flamboyance, that took the lights out of the Malaysians.
In one
play, Castro was dribbling a few times between the legs,
with import Chris Kuete right in front of him. Kuete
took a step back anticipating a drive but Castro hoisted
a three-pointer. Kuete was still able to jump and get a
hand on Castro’s face, but the triple had already gone
in hitting nothing but net.
Castro
was also without a turnover in 29 minutes, second most
on the team. Fernandez finished with 19 points, while
import Mike LeBlanc had 10. LeBlanc, who had been
outplayed by his counterparts in Indonesia and Malaysia,
only played 20 minutes Sunday.
The
Nationals witnessed another strong showing by opposing
imports as Kuete, a Cameroonian, and Ben Knight, an
Australian, combined for 52 points and 28 rebounds.
The
Philippines finished with a 2-1 record and second behind
Indonesia.
Third-place Malaysia (1-2) and cellar-dweller Thailand
(0-3) completed the standings.
While he
lauded his team’s efforts, Romero chastised the
organizers in the Ekwe crisis.
“This is
the way they want to beat the Philippines? Well, they’ve
succeeded,” Romero said, alluding to the organizers’
decision to bar Ekwe from playing. “As far as I’m
concerned, this is the only way they’re going to beat
us.”
Romero
reiterated his commitment to the RP national cause. He
said preparations for the Jones Cup in July will be
underway soon. Junel Baculi, the team consultant here,
will assume the post of head coach. |
