Philippines Beat Indonesia: Swept SEABA U18 Tournament En Route To FIBA Asia U18 Championship

By Caramel Sy; Edited by Val Macanas

Energetic Energen Pilipinas eneded the 8th SEABA Championship undefeated as they walloped the 3-0 Indonesia with a final score of 81-57 yesterday in Singapore.

Energen started a 5-0 run over the Indonesia that pressured them to make their first basket. They had a hard time in answering the baskets of Philippines. Philippines dominated in most parts of this game.

Though the Indonesians seemed to have found their rhythm in the last 4 minutes of the 2nd quarter via the fouls that were called from some of the Energen Pilipinas Players. Indonesia used it as an advantage. They took a trip in the free throw line and slashed their deficit down to 3. The shooter of Indonesia, Jan Panagan also scored a lot in the 2nd quarter as he notched 13 points. But thankfully, Rodolfo Alejandro, an NU recruit, successfully sank his trey attempt that staved off Indonesia from tying the game.

During the 3rd quarter, Energen Pilipinas already established a double digit lead over the Indonesians. They were able to tighten up their defense against the scorers of Indonesia, namely, Andre Adriano, Kristiano Halim, Juan KokoDiputro and Vincent Kosasih. They limited their offensive weapons. The Philippines' defense was really tight. In fact, they forced the Indonesians to commit 18 turnovers all in all.

In the 4th quarter, Kyle Suarez and Rey Chan Nambatac, the reigning NCAA Juniors MVP were solid for the Philippines. They were unstoppable in the final period. Suarez came out scoring heavily for the Philippines as he padded his output to 13 points in the 4th while Nambatac notched 15 points. He and Nambatac also made their very important charities that secured them the top spot in the teams standings and ultimately, the SEABA Title.

They have successfully swept the Tournament. Congratulations to the Philippine U18 players and to coach Olsen Racela, of course!

The most important thing here is that the Energen Pilipinas Team is already qualified for the upcoming 2012 FIBA-Asia U18 Championship which will be in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.

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