Iran takes FIBA Asia beat Gilas Pilipinas

Iran wins FIBA Asia by beating Gilas Pilipinas. At half, Gilas Pilipinas rallied to reach 34-35 deficit against a favored Iran five in their gold medal match of the 27th FIBA Asia men’s Championship Sunday night at the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City but Iran overwhelemed them defensively and the Philippines cannot buy a bucket.

Gilas Pilipinas in the Finals after beating South Korea 86-76

MANILA, Philippines — Smart Gilas Pilipinas beat South Korea 86-76 and will now face Iran for the 27th FIBA Asia Men’s Championships finals.

Gilas Pilipinas defeated South Korea, 86-79, on Saturday, to earn the right to play Iran in the 2013 FIBA Asia Championship Finals, at the Mall of Asia Arena. With the win, the Philippines also earned a berth in the 2014 FIBA World Cup in Spain.

"To all the haters and the skeptics, I forgive you," said a triumphant Gilas head coach Chot Reyes. "God bless you and mabuhay ang Pilipinas."

The Koreans brought the lead down to a single point at 4:40 as Kim Mingoo completed a four-point play. It was quickly followed by a Lee Seung Jun dunk at the 4:18 mark to give Korea a 74-73 lead. He added a free throw to install a two-point lead.

With the Koreans threatening anew to break their hearts, Alapag seized the moment to return the favor. Alapag gave Gilas back the lead with a triple with 3:01 left in the game, but Kim Tae-Sool quickly stole it back with a jumper to settle the score at 77-76 in favor of Korea..

De Ocampo stepped up to score a layup to continue the see-saw battle between the two fierce rivals. With the seconds dwindling down, Pingris stole the ball, which led to a De Ocampo triple for an 81-77 Gilas lead.

After Yang Donggeun rolled in his free throws to cut Gilas’ lead down to two, 81-79, Alapag answered with a booming three-pointer in the final 54 seconds to make it 84-79 and killed any hopes of another Korean comeback.
"Words can’t describe how we’re feeling right now,” Alapag said after punching a ticket to the FIBA World Cup in Spain next year with an 86-79 win over Korea that pushed Gilas Pilipinas to a finals showdown with two-time champion Iran Sunday night.

The 5-foot-9 Alapag, who was hailed as Asia’s best point guard by Lebanon’s Fadi El Khatib during his first tour of duty with the national team, hit four triples – the last, perhaps, the biggest in his entire basketball career.

Philippines 86 - Castro 17, Pingris 16, Alapag 14, De Ocampo 11, Tenorio 9, Aguilar 8, Chan 5, Norwood 2, Douthit 2, Fonacier 2, David 0

Korea 79 - M. Kim 27, D. Yang 11, Joo-sung Kim 11, S. Lee 10, J. Lee 10, Cho 6, S. Kim 2, T. Kim 2, Yoon 0, Kim Jongkyu 0

Iran beat Chinese Taipei, claims first finals slot

Iran use their strong defense to defeat the three-point threat of Chinese Taipei, 79-60, on Saturday, in the semifinal round of the 2013 FIBA Asia Championship held at the Mall of Asia Arena, Manila, Philippines.

Iran are now in the finals that will be held tomorrow, they will also go to Spain for the 2014 FIBA World Cup. After their untimely exit in the 2011 FIBA Asia Championship, Iran vowed to do all they can to recapture the title. They are now one step away as they wait for the winner of the second semis match-up against the Philippines and South Korea.

“Three things were important. No fastbreaks, no easy points, and control the boards,” said Iran head coach Mehmed Becirovic. “We didn’t start the game good but we found the energy to win the game.”

Mahdi Kamrany, Iran’s veteran point guard, scored 19 points and added six rebounds and six assists. Hamed Hadadi added 17 points and 14 rebounds while Oshin Sahakian chipped in 13 points and eight boards.

Chinese Taipei, on the other hand, will have to earn their invitation to Spain the hard way. They now await the loser of the other semis match for the battle for third tomorrow.

Hung Chih-Shan broke a 4-all tie at the 7:48 mark with a step back jumper, but Hadadi tied game again on the next possession.

Iran struggled to get their inside game going as Quincy Davis and Tseng Wen-Ting tag teamed to clog the lane. However, Hamed Afagh completed a steal and turned it into a three point play at the 3:29 mark of the first to trim Chinese Taipei's lead down to two points at 13-11.

Lin Chih-Chieh sank a triple at the 2:20 mark to extend their lead to seven points at 19-12. Tseng added a long jumper to raise the lead to nine points.

An Afagh baseline jumper inched Iran closer at 21-14, but Chen Shih-Chieh finished the first quarter by sinking an awkward jumper. The first 10 minutes of action ended with Chinese Taipei surprising Iran by leading 23-14.

Lin, the usually reliable scorer for Chinese Taipei, struggled in the game. His triple in the first quarter would be his first and only basket. He went 1-for-6 in the field while turning the ball over four times.

An inside two from Asghar Kardoust and a triple from Mahdi Kamrany opened the second quarter for Iran to get to within four points of Chinese Taipei at 23-19.

A free throw from Oshin Sahakian and three straight points from Kamrani knotted the ball game at 23-all with 6:23 left in the second period. Iran continued to wreak havoc on the open court as they completed a 17-0 run

Two free throws from Davis finally stopped the bleeding for Chinese Taipei. Those were Chinese Taipei’s first two points in the second period and these came with only 3:30 left before halftime.

Iran pushed the tempo yet again to get four straight points from Kamrany and Sahakian to build a 35-25 lead. Luckily for Chinese Taipei, Iran’s head coach was called for a technical foul. This allowed Davis to make two free throws with his team keeping possession.

Davis finally scored Chinese Taipei’s first field goal of the second quarter at the 1:20 mark. His basket trimmed the Iranian lead down to 10 at 39-29. After another basket from Sahakian, Davis scored again down low but he was fouled and bloodied up. Tien Lei stepped in to can the freethrow in Davis’ stead to get Chinese Taipei to within nine points.

Tien added a triple at the tail end of the first half for a 41-35 count still in Iran’s favor.

Iran outscored Chinese Taipei 27-12 in the second period to turn a nine-point deficit into a six-point lead. Kamrany led Iran with 12 points, four rebounds, and four assists in the first half. Sahakian added nine points, six rebounds, and three assists.

Davis top scored for Chinese Taipei with 10 points as he carried the brunt of the offense for his team in the second period.

Kamrany and Sahakian, the duo that did the most damage for Iran in the first half, connected again to start the third period. Kamrany found Sahakian for the first two points for Iran. Sahakian then completed a steal and a fastbreak layup for a 45-35 count in their favor. Hadadi added a hook, followed by a fastbreak layup from Samad Nikkah Bahrami to build a 14-point lead for Iran.

Like in the second period, it was Davis who first scored for Chinese Taipei with a basket down low at the 5:55 mark. Davis scored again after a couple of minutes, but their defense could not contain Hadadi as Iran continued to pull away.

Kamrany scored a split on the line at the 1:24 mark, but Iran got the offensive rebound for a Kamrany layup to give Iran a commanding 58-39 lead. Afagh ended the third with a fastbreak layup for a 60-39 edge heading into the final quarter.

Chinese Taipei’s woes on offense continued in the third. After exploding for 23 points in the first quarter, they only managed to score 12 in the second and a measly four points in the third to allow Iran to pull away.

A jumper from Chen somehow trimmed the Iranian lead to 17 points at 62-45 with 6:23 left in the game. Chen did all he can to bring Chinese Taipei back in the game but he was matched by Kamrany and Hadadi on the other side.

Another Hadadi basket and a fastbreak layup by Kamrany gave Iran a 70-28 lead with only 3:38 left in the game.

Iran started pulling out their starters at that point as they allowed their bench to complete the mop-up operations.

IRAN (79) - Kamrany 19, Hadadi 17, Sahakian 13, Afagh 10, Kardoust 8, Nikkah Bahrami 8, Jamshidijafarabadi 2, Davoudichegani 2, Davari 0, Arghavan 0, Sohrabnejad 0, Veisi 0

CHINESE TAIPEI (60) - Davis III 16, Chen 11, Tsai 6, Tseng 6, Hung 5, Lu 5, Tien 4, Lin 3, Yang 2, Creighton 2, Lee 0, Chou 0

Source: GMA News

Gilas Pilipinas eliminates Kazakhs 88-58

Smart Gilas Pilipinas fended off Kazakhstan's brief comeback with three pointers and fast breaks beating the taller Kazakhs, 88-58 quarterfinal game in the 27th FIBA Asia championships.

After leading by as many as 19 in the first period, the Philippines saw its lead dwindle down to just six, 38-44, when the Kazakhs’ started nailing their outside shots with 2:13 left in the second.

Chinese Taipei dethrones China, 96-78

MANILA, Philippines – Chinese Taipei used a big third quarter run to dethrone defending champion China in a shocking 96-78 upset in the quarterfinal round of the 2013 Manila FIBA Asia Men’s Basketball Championship at the Mall of Asia Arena on Friday night.

Chinese Taipei outscored China, 31-12, in a big third quarter explosion that overturned a 10-point China halftime lead.

The Taiwanese rallied behind the inside presence of naturalized player Quincy Davis and their outside sniping as the once mighty China lead suddenly crumbled.

Davis’ alley-oop play capped off a 15-0 run by the Taiwanese bridging the second and early part of the third quarter.

Yi Jianlian gave China its final lead, 52-50, before Tien Lei’s triple ignited a furious 21-12 exchange that gave Taipei a nine-point edge, 71-62, into the fourth quarter.

China never knew what hit them as Taipei continued to pour the heat in the payoff period.

“Never give up,” Chin-Che Hsu told reporters after the game.

Hsu rallied his troops by reminding them how they dug themselves up from large deficits against Jordan and Philippines in the early rounds of the tournament.

And they responded big in the second half.

Davis outplayed Yi finishing with 27 points missing only once on 13 attempts against the latter’s 22 points on 11-of-17 shooting. The two giants cancelled out each other in the rebounding department with 10 each.

The biggest revelation for Chinese Taipei was Tsai Wne-Cheng who wound up with 21 points, 15 coming in the second half where they turned the game around.

Lin Chih-Chieh and Tien added 17 and 13 points, respectively.

The Taiwanese were so red-hot as they shot 60 percent from the field including 10 of 20 triples.

Their lethal outside shooting will be tested in the semifinals against the imposing size of Iran, the winners of the 2007 and 2009 edition.

2013 FIBA Asia Championship: Chinese Taipei Clutch against Philippine Gilas win game 84-79

Chinese Taipei hit clutch three pointers in the final few minutes to steal a win against the Philippine team, 84-79, on Saturday in the final game of Group A play in the 2013 FIBA Asia Championship being held at the Mall of Asia Arena.

The Philippines were leading by 11 in early minutes of the 4th until the Chinese Taipei heat up and pummel the Philippine team with three pointers.

With the victory, Chinese Taipei earned the top spot in their Group with a 3-0 win-loss card, while Gilas slides down to second place at 2-1. Jordan and Saudi Arabia share identical 0-2 records.

Iran punishes Yi-less China 70-51

MANILA, Philippines – Iran establishes themselves as the top dog of this competition as they rout Yi Jianlan-less China, 70-51, Saturday to sweep the Group C of the 2013 Manila FIBA Asia Men’s Basketball Championship at the Mall of Asia Arena.

Iran exploited Yi’s absence to the hilt racing to a double-digit lead right in the opening quarter and outrebounding China, including a huge 16-7 disparity in the offensive glass.  Iran cashed in those offensive boards with 15 second chance points against China’s measly four points.

Samad Nikkah Bahrami scored all of his 10 points in the first quarter lifting Iran to a 26-16 lead.  Bahrami failed to score the rest of the way but it did not matter as the rest of the Iranians took care of the rest.

Yi, who sat out for the second straight game with a hamstring injury,

Hamed Haddadi had 15 points and seven boards outdueling China’s ageless Wang ZhiZhi, who finished with nine and five.

Hamed Afagh and Oshin Sahakian also did well for the 2007 FIBA Asia champions combining for 25 points.

Wang Shipeng was the lone double-digit scorer for China with 11 points.