Smart Gilas five sweeps Seaba crown

JAKARTA—Indonesia seemed content just to be in the finals.

Smart Gilas Pilipinas reasserted its mastery over the host Indonesians with an 89-50 rout last night to sweep the 9th Southeast Asian Basketball Association Championship at the BritAma Arena.

Starters Chris Tiu, Mark Barroca and Marcus Douthit presided over a sizzling 25-4 start that sent the nine-man PH squad on the way to a four-game romp of this qualifier for the Fiba Asia championship in September.

“We again came out strong and hardly gave them a chance to make a run,” said Smart Gilas coach Rajko Toroman. “We shot bad in the second quarter but we didn’t let them score for more than seven minutes in the third.”

Fans—most of them Indonensians—entered the court after the final horn sounded and posed with Smart Gilas players for photographs.

The Filipinos withstood repeated Indonesian fightbacks in the next eight minutes before increasing the lead to 67-35 by holding the hosts without a field goal while scoring 24 quick points.

Mac Baracael’s three-pointer padded the Smart Gilas advantage to its largest, 84-40, as the Nationals duplicated their emphatic 94-54 victory over the Indonesians in the eliminations.

The Nationals, along with the Indonesians and the Malaysians, had earlier qualified to the Fiba Asia Championship in Wuhan, China, on Sept. 15 to 25 where the winner will represent the continent in the 2012 London Olympics.

40-point winning margin

Smart Gilas swept its four games with an average winning margin of 40 points despite playing with only nine healthy players.

The Filipinos outrebounded the Indonesians this time, 43-27, after allowing the latter to grab 26 offensive rebounds in their first encounter.

Barroca scored nine points in the opening minutes, Tiu and Baracael added a few licks of their own while Marcus Douthit was simply an immovable force inside as Smart Gilas built a 21-point advantage in the first quarter.

Barroca finished with 17 points, Douthit had 16 while Tiu and Baracael contributed 13 and 12 for the Nationals, who held the Indonesians to 26 percent (18 of 68) shooting from the field.

“It was the same story: We stopped their penetrations while playing aggressive in offense,” said Toroman.

The Indonesians actually made it easier for the Nationals as they missed nine of their first 14 shots, with one of those baskets accidentally tipped in by Baracael in a mid-air rebound collision.

Indonesia somehow pumped up the hometown crowd on Xaverius Prawiro’s three-pointer and a drive by Faisal Ahmad, cutting the deficit down to 16 points.

But the 6-foot-11 Douthit kept pounding the Indonesians inside, lifting the Nationals to a 46-27 lead at halftime, from 40-26 with three minutes left in the second period.

The scores:

PHILIPPINES 89—Barroca 17, Douthit 16, Tiu 13, Baracael 12, Aguilar 9, Lutz 7, Ababou 6, Casio 5, Ballesteros 4.

INDONESIA 50—Gunawan 14, Ahmad 12, Prawiro 11, Poedjakesuma 4, Indrawan 4, Prihantono 3, Situmorang 2, Aryo 0, Chandra 0, Wuysang 0.

June Navarro, Inquirer.net