A sharp-shooting Philippines team overcame another standout performance by Lin "the Beast" Chieh-chih to win at Sinjhuang yesterday evening in the Jones Cup basketball tournament.
Taiwan controlled the tip-off and after one minute of the match, Lin got Taiwan off to a running start with a 3-pointer, which the Philippines answered immediately with a three of their own.
The teams exchanged turnovers midway through the first period before the Philippines scored on a fast break to tie the score at 7-7.
With four minutes left in the quarter, the teams abandoned the inside game and put on a 3-point shooting clinic.
The Philippines took the lead on a three with four minutes left in the quarter, but the "Beast" answered with a 3-pointer of his own to tie the score with 2:45 left in the quarter, then hit another just 30 seconds later.
long shot
The Philippines struck back with a three by Alapag, but this was immediately answered by a long shot by Taiwan's Chen Hsin-an. The Philippines hit two field goals to end the first quarter with a lead of 20-16.
Turnovers and fouls characterized the opening minutes of the second quarter. The Philippines connected on two field goals to run their lead up to 24-16 with 7:30 left to play in the half.
Taiwan then misfired inside on two trips down the floor and the Philippines' Reymundo drove the basket, scored, drew a foul and made the free throw to make the score 27-16.
Taiwan's Chou Shih-yuan halted the Philippines charge by penetrating, scoring and converting a free throw for an old-school 3-point play to cut the lead to a single digit midway through the period.
The "Beast" hit a three for Taiwan to make the score 37-26 before the Philippines scored on the inside, but with 1:30 left, Lin hit again from behind the arc again to cut the lead to 10.
A Philippines free throw closed out the half with Taiwan trailing by 40-29.
A Philippines three by Jalapag opened the scoring in the second half, but Lee Hsueh-lin answered with a three of his own to make it 43-32 in favor of the Philippines. Chen "the Airman" Hsin-an then hit a three to trim the Philippines' lead to 10.
The "Beast" proved that he had an inside game to go with his long-range shooting by driving the lane for a bucket with 3:17 to play in the quarter, then got fouled hard attempting to do the same thing 30 seconds later.
A three from the wing and a fast break on Taiwan's fifth turnover of the period saw the Philippines stretch their lead to 20 points, but a beautiful no-look pass by the "Beast" resulted in a Taiwan basket to close out the period with the Philippines leading 61-43.
A tough reverse layup by Lee got Taiwan on the board in the final period and then the "Beast" went back to work from behind the arc, nailing three straight 3-pointers to take the score to 65-54 with seven minutes to play.
Just when things were looking up for Taiwan, two successive layups by Jalapag bumped the Philippines lead up to 69-54 as the Taiwanese defense began to come unglued with six minutes left.
hook shot
A tough hook shot by Wu in the paint and a free throw after made it 71-57 for the Philippines with 5:30 left. Wu drove deep twice more for baskets to make it 73-61 before Jalapag connected on another three.
Wu rejected a Philippines shot with a minute left, but by that point the damage had been done and the Philippines had run out to a 79-61 lead.
RSS