LESS than 24 hours after absorbing a stinging loss to South Korea, Gilas Pilipinas bounced back with an 85-71 rout of a club team from Russia, Spartak-Primorye, for its second win in the annual William R. Jones Cup invitational tournament on Tuesday at the Xin Zhuang Gymnasium in Taiwan.
The Philippines pulled away in the second half, courtesy of the heady plays of Ranidel de Ocampo and Calvin Abueva, to recover from a 70-82 defeat to the South Koreans on Monday night.
Five Gilas players finished in double figures, led by de Ocampo with 13 points, while Terrence Romeo, easily the most impressive Filipino so far for Head Coach Tab Baldwin, added 11 markers.
Abueva had 10 points and eight rebounds, while Matt Ganuelas-Rosser and Asi Taulava chipped in 10 points apiece. JC Intal contributed eight points off the bench.
The Russians fought the Filipinos toe to toe in the first 20 minutes, trailing by only three, 40-43, entering the break.
But Gilas took a 61-50 advantage after the third canto and started to pull away in the fourth period with de Ocampo and Abueva leading the charge.
Russia threatened at 55-61 in the first few minutes of the fourth period before de Ocampo and Abueva joined forces for a telling 11-4 run capped by Taulava’s undergoal stab for a 72-59 spread with five minutes left.
Gilas’s lead reached as high as 18, 83-65. The Filipinos never looked back and handed Russia its first loss in the tournament after winning its first three matches.
Gilas will face Japan on Wednesday at 3 p.m. Japan had a rest day on Tuesday and has yet to win a game in the eight-nation tournament.
Gilas put up a solid fight together, beating out Spartak-Primorye in a match marred by a near free-for-all just at the start of the game.
Russians Aleksei Goliakhov and Alimdzhan Fediushin and Romeo were each slapped a technical foul after the melee sparked by a hard foul by Goliakhov on the Gilas rookie.
In an earlier play, Sonny Thoss sustained a cut on his head from a wayward elbow by Fediushin. Five staples were used to close the cut and Thoss sat out the rest of the game.
The Filipinos, however, never backed down from the physicality of the game, fighting back but staying composed to pull off a first win by the Philippines over a Russian team in a long while.
“It’s a good experience and good win for the team,” Baldwin said.
“Had they backed down from them, they would have to confront me,” said Baldwin on the physicality dealt on his players.
“Everybody had to play. They made mistakes. Our game was not polished but everybody stepped up and contributed,” Baldwin said.
“What I liked the most was that we played with our roles—the shooters getting their shots, the rebounders getting the rebounds. From that standpoint, it’s a team win,” he added.
Gary David, Jason Castro, Marc Pingris and Gabe Norwood took their turn to rest in the game against Russia.
Thoss was limited to two minutes due to the injury. Jimmy Alapag, on the other hand, played just a little over five minutes.