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A malfunctioning shot clock delayed the start of Powerade-Team Pilipinas? final game at the 31st William Jones Cup tournament. When technicians were done fixing it after an hour, so was the game.
An undersized Philippine Team got a beating from start to finish against a taller and stronger Iran squad, 85-60, at the close of the tournament yesterday at the Hsinchuang gym in Taipei.
Infront of some Filipino overseas workers who came to support their hometown cage heroes, the RP squad got beaten from tip off, trailing by a big margin early on and failing to recover for the remainder of the game.
The Nationals wrapped up their campaign with a 2-6 (win-loss) slate, good for sixth spot and three ranks lower than the third-place finish of their 2007 predecessors.
?Game was very easy, no problem,? said Iran coach Vaselin Matic.
Iran?s 7-foot-3 behemoth Hamed Ehadadi had 19 points and 12 rebounds and shrugged off a hard hit sustained from the Philippines? Ranidel de Ocampo in the second quarter that produced an angry bruise above his right eye.
?We had no solution to their height advantage, we just couldn?t match up with their size,? said national coach Yeng Guiao, who got 13 points from Sonny Thoss and 12 from Cyrus Baguio in the lopsided loss.
The first meeting between the two teams since the 2007 FIBA-Asia Men?s Championship ? an Olympic qualifying tournament ? in Tokushima, Japan ended earlier than it last did. Their previous encounter came down the wire before the Iranians prevailed, 75-69 , and went on to capture the title and qualify to the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
But the Nationals fell behind early this time and eventually got buried at the half, 51-23. The second half avalanche that followed sealed a doomed climax for the RP team, which trailed by as many as 30 points.
In an earlier game, Japan, reduced to five players, including the veteran Takehiko Orimo, after the rest of the team succumbed to intestinal flu, fell to Taiwan-B, 97-91.
Food poisoning also claimed players from other teams, including Ehadadi, who was brought to the hospital and was absent when host Taiwan stunned Iran, 80-76, Saturday.
With Iran?s second loss, Jordan, which walked out of its Thursday game with the Iranians in disgust over officiating, revived its bid for a third straight championship.
Lebanon, on the other hand, scuttled the hopes of South Korea after Matt Freije unloaded 39 points and hauled down 11 rebounds in a 97-79 rout.
The Jordanians (6-1) were to aim for the title against Kazakhstan after the RP-Iran game.
BOX SCORES:
IRAN 85 ? Ehadadi 19 Bahrami 18, Afagh 14, Tadjik 11, Kamrany 9, Sahakian 6, Amini 3, Davoudi 2, Davarpanah 2, Akbari 1, Doraghi 0, Davari 0.
RP 60 ? Thoss 13, Baguio 12, Santos 9, Aguilar 7, Dillinger 5, De Ocampo 4, Raymundo 3, Miller 3, Taulava 2, Norwood 2.
Quarterscores: 25-12, 41-23, 74-43, 85-60.
