The Philippines opened its campaign with a bang by routing Kazakhstan, 96-59, on Thursday in the 2018 Asian Games men’s basketball competition at the Gelora Bung Karno Sports Complex Basketball Hall in Jakarta, Indonesia.
The Filipinos held a 41-20 advantage at the halftime break before the 6’5” Filipino-American Jordan Clarkson of the Cleveland Cavaliers arrived at the venue with the Philippines leading 66-45 in the middle of the third quarter and never looked back.
Stanley Pringle of Northport (formerly GlobalPort) sizzled with 18 points on 6-of-9 shooting from the field, while the 6’8” Christian Standhardinger notched 15 points and veteran James Yap also had an outstanding game with 12 points and five rebounds for Team Philippines.
“We were able to disrupt their offense. We were able to challenge their shots. Our anticipation was good and that’s because of the scouting that we did and the implementation and the execution of our game plan,” head coach Yeng Guiao said.
Paul Lee added 10 points and Chris Tiu contributed 9 points for the Filipinos, who will face China on Tuesday for their second game in the preliminary round in Group D.
“The players executed well the game plan. First, we contested every shot especially from the three-point area and second, we pressured whoever holds the ball because a scouting report says they can’t handle pressure defense,” assistant coach Mike Oliver said. |
Kazakhstan struggled from 13 of their 32 attempts and made only five out of 28 shots from the three-point zone because of the pesky defense of the Filipinos.
The Philippine team shot well from the field through 23-of-39 attempts and made 12-of-39 from the three-point zone.
The Filipinos outhustled the taller and heavier Kazakhs, forcing them to commit 22 turnovers, which Team Philippines transformed to 29 points.
The Philippines stole the ball 16 times from the Kazakhs’ side.
Kazakhstan made only six steals.
Anton Bykov led Kazakhstan with 13 points and five rebounds.
Clarkson cheered his teammates after arriving at the venue in the third quarter.
He will join the team’s practices in preparation against China.
Guiao sees no problem fitting Clarkson into his system.
“[If it’s a good player you’d be playing with] that’s a good problem blending him in,” Guiao said of the Cleveland Cavaliers guard, who got a “one-time only” chance from the NBA to play for the Philippines in the Asian Games.