Basketball

Last night, Mairin (another AYAD), Francisco (an Argentinean/New Zealander friend of Neil's who is working here as a fisheries consultant for the EU), Neil and I went to the Araneta Centre to watch some basketball. Basketball is one of the most popular sports here in the Philippines which is initially surprising because the Philippinos are generally not the tallest of people. We struck it lucky as while we would have been happy to watch teams from the National Philippines Basketball League play, at the moment the 16th FIBA Asia Champions Cup is being hosted in Manila. So we grabbed tickets to watch Philippines versus Iran. It was great fun and were only about 5 rows back from the court, but the Pilipinas team lost. Here's the game lowdown!

16th FIBA Asia Champions Cup 2005
Manila, Philippines May 29 -- June 5 : Day Four Result http://www.fibaasia.net/

Manila, Philippines (June 1)-Powerhouse Iran-Saba Battery imposed their superiority over the Philippines 85-75 to grab solo leadership in Group A in the Fedex 16th Fiba-Asia Champions Cup at the Araneta Coliseum here. With the victory, the Iranians not only installed themselves on top of the leader-board with an immaculate 4-0 card, they also emerged as the favorites to win this year’s edition of the Champions Cup.

The Filipinos, who were down by 12 points several times, the last at 68-80 with still 2 minutes remaining in the game, suffered their first loss in three games. Iran relied heavily on their imports- Lorenzo Daynard Hall and Andre Doran Pitts who scored 17 and 24 respectively, while the Philippines was led by Dondon Hontiveros and Rommel Adducul who had a combined output of 41 points.

Tomorrow, the Philippines is expected to bent their ire on Lebanon to assure themselves of the number two position at the end of the elimination round. Game time between the Filipinos and Lebanese is scheduled at 7:15 p.m. at the Ynares Gym in Antipolo City, an estimated 20 kilometers away from Manila.

Meanwhile, three-time champion Lebanon, which is slowly getting back on track, smothered Kazakhstan 94-75, their second straight victory after dropping their opening game against Iran 51-71 last May 29. Kazakhstan suffered their 3 rd straight loss in as many games joining lowly India down the cellar of Group A.

Qatar showed no mercy in beating Syria 79-54 as it warmed up for the highly anticipated showdown with Jordan, their archrival in Group B today. Qatar and Jordan have identical three straight victories to show with no defeat. The battle between Qatar and Jordan will be at 2:45 p.m. also at the Ynares Gym in Antipolo City.

Kuwait annexed their second victory against the United Arab Emirates 81-74, putting themselves in the number two position in Group B with a 2-2 win-loss record. The loss pushed the United Arab Emirates dead last with Syria in their bracket, both toting a 0-3 card.

posted by batik billy @ 10:53 am