Smart Gilas Beats Indonesia In 9th SEABA 2011 Men's Championship: 4th Straight Blowout Win

The Smart Gilas Pilipinas is looking really sharp in getting that slot in the 2011 FIBA Asia Championship as they are cruising against other weaker Asian teams in the 9th Southeast Asian Basketball Association (SEABA) men's basketball championship that is being held in the Jakarta, Indonesia. Their first helpless victims were the Malaysians. Gilas clawed them with the score of 97-71. Their second victim was Indonesia. Gilas beat them by a huge 40 point margin, 94-54. Gilas then proceeded to beat Singapore via 106-51 to capture the first finals slot. Indonesia on the other hand beat Malaysia via 77-47 to get the other finals slot.

In the finals last Sunday, Gilas engaged an aerial combat against Indonesia and just like their previous games in the elimination round, they also cruised past the weaker Indonesian team. Gilas dominated the whole match en route to having a huge 89 to 50 victory.

Mark Barocca was the biggest thing for Gilas in their finals game against Indonesia. He had 17 points in this game. Marcus Douthit pitched in 16 points and he also provided the intimidation factor against the Indonesians. I was also glad that Chris Tiu is slowly gaining his confidence back after his poor performance in the Champions Cup. Tiu had 13 points in this game. Mark Baracel, the versatile player of Gilas also added 12 points in this game.

Gilas just swept the annually held SEABA tournament. The tournament was just an easy one, Gilas didn't have to field in PBA players, but the most important thing is that they were able to get a slot for the 2011 FIBA Asia Championship which will be on September in Wuhan, China.