Jeff Chan led all scorers with 20 points for the Philippine team, which was never seriously threatened in the game. SMART-Gilas limited Uzbekistan to just five points in the second quarter to break away for a 39-21 halftime lead before cruising to victory in the second half.
Chan, who had only managed to score five points total in the Philippines’ first two games in the tournament, had a breakout performance with 20 points, including four three-pointers, in just 18 minutes of play while Jared Dillinger was the only other Filipino in double figures. Five others players scored seven or more points for SMART-Gilas.
Chan found his touch early, firing 12 points in the first 6:05 of the game. And he did it in a variety of ways, knocking down three-pointers and getting easy opportunities in transition, as Gilas opened a 23-16 lead at the end of the first quarter.
The Filipinos then turned the pressure up in the second behind PBA teammates Larry Fonacier and Jared Dillinger. Fonacier hit a big three-pointer to open the period, and Dillinger had two strong finishes – a difficult reverse layup and two-handed dunk – on back-to-back possessions as the Filipinos opened with 14-0 blast en route to a 39-21 lead at the halftime break.
SMART-Gilas showed no signs of slowing in the third, with LA Tenorio setting the tone early by finding Gabe Norwood wide open for an alley-oop dunk.
Chan then caught fire once again, scoring five straight points on a layup in the paint and a three. He then found naturalized center Marcus Douthit for an easy dunk. After Douthit made two more free throws to make it 50-23 for the Philippines with 6:44 remaining in the third, Chan came through yet again, hitting his fourth triple of the game to give the SMART-Gilas a whopping 30-point lead, 53-23.
With the game well in hand, the Filipinos took the opportunity to give many of their key players a rest, handing extended minutes to reserves, who pushed the lead to as high as 37 points in the fourth quarter.
Douthit, who led the team with a 25-point, 21-rebound effort in their previous game, played just a little over 14 minutes, finishing with nine points and four rebounds.
The struggles from the outside that plagued SMART-Gilas in their first two games, where they shot just 8-for-48, seemed to be past them as they nailed three of their first five attempts and finished with an 8-for-20 (40 percent) clip from beyond the arc.
SMART-Gilas wraps up its preliminary round campaign Sunday against another minnow, Macau, before proceeding to the crossover knockout quarterfinal round.
The scores:
SMART-Gilas Pilipinas (85) – Chan 20, Dillinger 10, Douthit 9, Rosser 8, David 7, Fonacier 7, Reyes 7, Villanueva 6, De Ocampo 5, Norwood 4, Tenorio 2, Thoss 0.
Uzbekistan (50) – Denisov 16, Juginisov 12, Kozlov 6, Rahimov 6, Yakhin 6, Nuraliev 2, Tangrikulov 2, Kadirov 0, Nabiev 0, Safarov 0, Timofeev 0.
Quarterscores: 23-16, 39-21, 63-33, 85-50.
-Mikkel Bolante, InterAKTV
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