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Tianjin? Forget Istanbul and the 16th FIBA World Championship next year. Powerade Team Pilipinas has just missed the last plane going there.
Having bowed out for a top three spot in the 25th FIBA Asia World Championship here, the Nationals practically laid down and rolled over against Qatar Saturday, 83-65, to surrender their last chance to return to the global stage after more than two decades.
Until the loss, the possibility of reaching Turkey as a wildcard entrant remained alive since the fourth- and fifth-placed teams could get invited, along with eight others from all over, to compete for four slots to the World Championships.
But the Nationals trailed early, 10-2, and never fully recovered against a tall, fast and deadly Qatar team that drained 6 of 11 three-point shots in the first half in opening a 49-32 spread.
Showing none of the fire it exhibited during the preliminary round, especially in the come-from-behind victories over Japan and Chinese-Taipei, the RP team looked like a spent force waiting to get this tournament over and done with.
?This is our worst game undoubtedly,? said national coach Yeng Guiao. ?What?s really disappointing is that we did not play with any spirit. The defense we showed was awful. We did not resist the onslaught of Qatar?s offense. We knew they were bigger and stronger but we did not offer resistance to that.
After missing 18 free throws in an 81-70 quarterfinal loss to Jordan, the Nationals shot just six foul shots in the first 20 minutes and missed three, while the Qataris went 13 of 20 aside from picking up an 11-0 advantage in second chance points.
The shooting percentage in the first quarter alone was pathetic ? 12 of 38 overall with 15 missed three-pointers.
Jayjay Helterbrand, a mystery throughout the touranement, was 0 for 6, Sonny Thoss 0 for 2, Mick Pennisi and James Yap 1 for 4, and Gabe Norwood and Kerby Raymundo 1 for 3.
Willie Miller sat out the game with a pulled groin muscle suffered during the game Iran.
On the Qatari side, Mohammed Saleem Abdulla went 5 for 5, drilling seven straight points at the start of the second period where they broke the game open, 33-16 from a seven-point edge after 10 minutes.
Chinese-Taipei bowed to host China, 101-83, and South Korea lost a thriller to Lebanon, 68-65, in quarterfinal playoffs Friday, sending the Chinese and the Lebanese on a collision course in the Final Four.
The other semifinal match, between Jordan and Iran, which ousted Qatar, 75-65, in the knockout, was also playing at press time.
Qatar takes on the winner of the South Korea-Chinese Taipei game for fifth place, while the Philippines meets the loser for seventh spot, a game the Nationals could find redemption.
A 1991 RP team finished seventh in the Asian Basketball Confederation Men ?s Championship in Kobe, Japan, the highest a national squad has achieved since winning the title in 1986 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
