sinag pilipinas captured the gold medal in men's basketball last night as it trounced thailand, 85-57, in the 26th southeast asian games in indonesia.
uaap standouts greg slaughter, rayray parks, rr garcia, and kiefer ravena scored in double digits to lead sinag's rout against the more experienced thailand squad. the 7 foot behemoth from ateneo finished with 16 points, the reigning uaap mvp scored 15, last year's uaap mvp had 12 points, while the uaap rookie of the year made 10 points. this is the first game sinag pilipinas scored below 100 points, and the 28 point lead was the closest winning margin sinag had in all its 5 games in the competition.
bucking the absence of garvo lanete, sinag slowly pulled away from its thai counterparts in the third quarter. emman monfort and chris tiu facilitated excellent ball movement for the team as its scorers finished strong inside and outside the shaded area. the thais might have scouted some of sinag's plays, but coach norman black stuck to his game plan to distribute the ball efficiently and run the break frequently.
there were moments in the game when i saw sinag execute plays from the blue eagles' playbook in the uaap. perhaps it was a "low scoring game" because sinag also intended to keep it as such, thus dictating the tempo for the game. it's not a surprise after all, as coach black wanted the players to adjust to his system more than it adjusting to them.
to all the haters out there, you should have seen the gold medal game as it proved why attending practices and adjusting to coach norman black's system matter the most for sinag. he did not want to rely on star players who will chalk up big stats but resilient players who are willing to take up roles in the team and execute that role effectively. i personally think the composition of this team is good enough for a future training ground for "gilas 2.0" but if the players who were conspicuously absent in the line-up would be willing to embrace coach norman's system, then international competition and exposure are waiting to be written in their basketball resume.
in the end, the future looks bright for philippine basketball. imagine kiefer ravena gaining a bit more height and arsenal in his offense and defense. imagine greg slaughter continuing to learn under the tutelage of coach norman black and improve his footwork on the post. imagine rr garcia playing as a natural point guard that can fire away if the play calls for it. imagine rayray parks slashing against china's big men for an and-one play. imagine cliff hodge and chris ellis becoming defensive stoppers that can guard korea's three point shooters. the sun shines bright for philippine basketball and i cannot wait to see more of this team improve and gain exposure in international competition. and who knows, they might just be the team we've been waiting for to barge into the olympics and world championships.
The Scores:
Philippines (85) - Slaugther 16, Parks 15, Garcia 12, Ravena 10, Monfort 8, Tiu 6, Marcelo 6, Pascual 5, Hodge 5, Salva 2
Thailand (57) - Kaedum 17, Sangthong 11, Mertmalaiporn 11, Kongkum 8, Apiromvilaichai 6, Klahan 2, Ghogar 2
Quarter Scores: 21-17, 44-25, 61-42, 85-57
also, congratulations to discovery perlas ng pilipinas for winning the silver medal in the women's basketball competition. they were like 3 seconds away from the gold medal until a series of unfortunate events took place. nonetheless, great job to the girls of perlas! and i really want to kill that mosquito that bit cassy tioseco.
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