Team Pilipinas Basketball Team (the olympic dream)

**baludoy** · July 3rd, 2007 12:02 PM

got this from another thread

07 Basketball - Jones Cup - Men

Game 1 VS Philippines

TAIPEI, Taiwan --- Only having practiced together seven times in the span of a week, Athletes in Action (AIA) made its debut at the 2007 William R. Jones Cup Monday night with a five-point loss to the Philippine National Team (PBA), 72-67.

“Right now we’re just learning how to play together,” said head coach Mike Jarvis. “We played against a very good team and had a chance to win. When the game came down to the final five minutes, they finished and made the plays. I feel good though. We played really hard. I’d like to see us play a little better, but I’m not disappointed in the way played.

“We’re just going to take one game at a time and try to be the best we can be. When we ran our offense and took our time we were very efficient. I thought we did a great job of coming back and taking the lead after being down eight.”

The Jones Cup is a round robin tournament with all 10 teams playing nine games in nine days. Other competing countries include: Chinese Taipei, Japan, Korea, Qatar, Iran, Jordan, Lebanon and Kazakhstan. AIA, representing the United States, and Japan are the lone two non-senior National Teams competing in the tournament as preparation for next month's Olympic qualifying tournament in Thailand.

Wanting to establish itself quickly, AIA (0-1) claimed the early momentum as four different players scored the team’s first four baskets to take a five-point lead less than three minutes into the contest. The Philippine team (1-0) responded with a 10-0 spurt over the next 1:33. AIA then answered with a 10-0 run of its own, including four points from Zack Gibson (Grand Blanc, Mich./Michigan) and claimed a two-point lead at the end of the first quarter, 25-23.

The Philippine team used its experience to limit the U.S. to just six second quarter points and outscored it by nine to claim a 38-31 halftime lead.

Conversely, AIA turned up its defensive pressure in the third quarter, limiting its opponent to just six points, while more than doubling its second quarter output.

Todd Hendley (Sanford, N.C./UNC Wilmington) opened the period with a basket in the paint before Darris Nichols (Radford, Va./West Virginia) and Tyler Wilkerson (Lexington, Ky./Marshall) made back-to-back 3s to tie the score at 40. Alex Ruoff (Spring Hill, Fla./West Virginia) then put AIA ahead with a jumper just inside the arc.

Hendley was one of three AIA players to score double figures, finishing with a team-high 11 points. Wilkerson added 10 points as did Gibson.

Another Ruoff basket and a pair of free throws by Gibson gave AIA a four-point lead, its largest since 30 seconds into the second quarter, with 1:43 left in the period before Donaldo Hontiveros’ 3-pointer closed the gap to one as the quarter expired.

As the fourth quarter began so did Tim Pollitz (Ottawa, Ohio/Miami University), scoring six of AIA’s first eight fourth quarter points and helping build a five-point advantage with just over five minutes remaining, 57-52.

In the game’s final five minutes the Philippine National Team displayed its veteran savvy and cohesiveness as its outscored AIA 20-10, making three of its nine 3-pointers on the night.

PBA shot 43 percent from behind the arc (9-for-21), while AIA struggled from the international distance making just 5-of-26 (19 percent).

AIA dominated the glass, out-rebounding PBA by 27, 58-31. Brian Asbury (Miami, Fla./Miami) and Gibson had eight each, while Hendley, Pollitz and Wilkerson grabbed six boards apiece.

Jimmy Alapag scored a game-high 19 points for PBA, who had three other players reach double figures.

AIA, which won the 2006 Jones Cup, returns to action Tuesday, July 3, against Kazakhstan.

actually, from what i understand, only the top 2 teams in next month's fiba asia tournament will qualify for the beijing olympics. but since china, being the host, has already a slot in the games, basketball pundits are speculating that the chinese will only send their team b. thus, giving asian teams like ours a big-to-good chance of crashing in on the olympic bash

btw, ritualo, menk, and j. yap suited up but were not sent in yesterday. again, pundits say it may be a ploy by coach chot to hide our assets from prying eyes of opposing coaches and scouts.

danny seigle and art dela cruz stayed home to enable them to recuperate from their injuries w/c they incurred in their rugged serbian friendship games last month

**shadow** · July 3rd, 2007 12:49 PM

Originally Posted by baludoy

got this from another thread

actually, from what i understand, only the top 2 teams in next month's fiba asia tournament will qualify for the beijing olympics. but since china, being the host, has already a slot in the games, basketball pundits are speculating that the chinese will only send their team b. thus, giving asian teams like ours a big-to-good chance of crashing in on the olympic bash

btw, ritualo, menk, and j. yap suited up but were not sent in yesterday. again, pundits say it may be a ploy by coach chot to hide our assets from prying eyes of opposing coaches and scouts.

danny seigle and [SIZE=4]art [/SIZE]dela cruz stayed home to enable them to recuperate from their injuries w/c they incurred in their rugged serbian friendship games last month

boss, tony dela cruz po and hinde art, retired na si art at asst coach ni uichico..hehehe

**empy** · July 3rd, 2007 12:53 PM

sayang dapat isabay ng FIBA sa NBA season yung tourney nila para sigurado wala si Yao at Yi

pati na rin si Wang Zhi Zhi :hihihi:

**baludoy** · July 3rd, 2007 01:03 PM

Originally Posted by shadow

boss, tony dela cruz po and hinde art, retired na si art at asst coach ni uichico..hehehe

ay...oo nga! mukhang magkapatid kasi eh hahaha

**Devastator** · July 3rd, 2007 08:21 PM

We just lost to Lebanon via a buzzer beating three.

**chua_riwap** · July 3rd, 2007 08:40 PM

Originally Posted by Devastator

We just lost to Lebanon via a buzzer beating three.

What?

Totoo ba ito?

**VtEC** · July 3rd, 2007 08:59 PM

:goodluck:

**shadow** · July 3rd, 2007 08:59 PM

Originally Posted by chua_riwap

What?

Totoo ba ito?

yup! if we want to qualify sa olympics, the team can't have this kind of silly mistakes/carelesness.... remember yun buzzer beater din tayo natalo sa korea...si norwood yata yun bantay he didn't even bother to raise his hands para kahit papano maiba yun tira nun kalaban..kaso pinabyaan lang tumira sa 3 point, wherein dapat alam na nila na ititira talaga dahil paubois na oras...tsk tsk tsk

**shadow** · July 3rd, 2007 09:05 PM

http://www.philstar.com/index.php?Sp...id=20070702127

M54, ito sagot sa tanong mo baka pwede mangyari....

**chua_riwap** · July 3rd, 2007 09:16 PM

Originally Posted by shadow

yup! if we want to qualify sa olympics, the team can't have this kind of silly mistakes/carelesness.... remember yun buzzer beater din tayo natalo sa korea...si norwood yata yun bantay he didn't even bother to raise his hands para kahit papano maiba yun tira nun kalaban..kaso pinabyaan lang tumira sa 3 point, wherein dapat alam na nila na ititira talaga dahil paubois na oras...tsk tsk tsk

Sayang.......