TPE - Philippines blitz Malaysia in third quarter
NEW TAIPEI CITY (William Jones Cup) - The Philippines didn't have their naturalized center Marcus Douthit or JV Casio but still managed to claim a third win in four games at the William Jones Cup in New Taipei City. Warming up for the FIBA Asia Championship, Rajko Toroman's team prevailed 86-68 to move closer to a spot in the semi-finals of the competition ...
NEW TAIPEI CITY (William Jones Cup) - The Philippines didn't have their naturalized center Marcus Douthit or JV Casio but still managed to claim a third win in four games at the William Jones Cup in New Taipei City.
Warming up for the FIBA Asia Championship, Rajko Toroman's team prevailed 86-68 to move closer to a spot in the semi-finals of the competition in Chinese Taipei.
Chris Tiu and Mac Baracael poured in 14 points each and both Japeth Aguilar and Marcio Lassiter contributed 13.
The balanced scoring attack for the Philippines also had Chris Lutz weighing in with 12.
Victory for the Philippines helped them erase the memory of the previous day's 76-72 setback to Jordan.
Toroman, who famously led Iran to the FIBA Asia Championship title in 2007 and then coached the team at the Beijing Games, is now at the helm of the Philippines.
Despite the margin of the victory, he wasn't pleased with the performance of his team.
"It was not a good game for us, we have to play much better," he said.
"We tried to rest our point guard (Casio) and our big guy (Douthit) for our game next game against Korea."
Malaysia were threatening to spring an upset midway through the game but a 24-2 run in the third quarter saw Toroman's team take command.
Malaysia coach Go Cheng Hua was disappointed with the setback but nevertheless felt his team had shown some improvement.
"I can say we played our best game in this Jones Cup," Goh said.
"We're considered as regional rivals, that's why we know how to play each other."
In a very close encounter, South Korea defeated Japan 69-67 to improve to 4-0.
The Korean had thrashed Iran in their previous encounter, 77-59, after getting five three-balls from Stevenson Cameron.
Iran, who have two defeats in the tournament, next brushed aside UAE 84-55.
FIBA