Smart Gilas Beats Jordan In FIBA Asia Championship 2011 2ND Round: Gilas Will Face The Unbeaten Japan Tomorrow

Photo came from FIBAASIA.NET

The Smart Gilas Pilipinas came back from a 15 point deficit in the first quarter to beat Jordan via 72-74 to start their FIBA Asia 2nd Round campaign with a nice win.

Marcio Lassiter and Chris Lutz played big for Smart Gilas. They defended well against the guards of Jordan such as Sam Daghlas. They limited Daghlas to a single digit output. Lassiter also made several three pointers to help his team's cause. He scored 14 points in this game. But, most importantly, his outside shots opened things up for Marcus Douthit. Marcus was able to score easier because Jordan's defensive lanes were unclogged because of Lassiter's shooting prowess.

Due to the nice combo punches that Douthit and Lassiter gave to the Jordanians, Gilas was able to tie the ball game at 47 all, at the end of the 3rd quarter. At the start of the 4th quarter, Gilas started to get hot as Asi Taulava, Japeth Aguilar, Marcio Lassiter, Chris Tiu and Jayvee Casio made some crucial shots that gave Gilas the lead. The Jordanians continued to crumble as their big man, Islam Abbas fouled out after he nudged Jayvee Casio in the last minutes of the 4th quarter. That lost of Islam Abbas proved to be costly for Jordan as it enabled Gilas to increase their lead en route to winning the much needed ball game.

Gilas now have a 2-1 win-loss record in Group F. All in all they now have 3 wins and 1 loss. The unbeaten Japan will be their next opponent tomorrow. The game will happen live at 6:00 p.m..


Here are the scores:

Philippines 72 - 64 Jordan

Douthit 19, Lassiter 14, Alapag 11, Tiu 9, Williams 6, de Ocampo 4, Lutz 4, Casio 3, Taulava 2, Barroca 0, Aguilar 0, Baracael 0.