Philippines breaks 8-year South Korean jinx with 81-78 thriller

Samjosef Belangel

THE Philippines smashed the South Korean jinx that went unbroken for eight years via an 81-78 thriller of a victory in the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) Asia Cup Qualifiers on Wednesday night. There were no fans at the Angeles City Foundation Gym in Pampanga but millions on television witnessed how sweet-and cold-blooded-it was for Samjosef Belangel (177-G-99) to sink that buzzer-beating three-pointer that snapped the Filipinos' losing spell against the Koreans. The Philippines beat South Korea, 86-79, the last time in the Fiba Asia Cup semifinals at the MOA Arena in August 10, 2013. That Gilas Pilipinas squad which featured Jimmy Alapag (180-PG-77, college: CSUSB, agency: BIG), Jason Castro, Marc Pingris, naturalized player Marcus Douthit (210-C/F-80, college: Providence), among others, sent the Philippines back to the World Cup in Spain the year later. Wednesday night's victory also didn't border on beating the South Korean jinx alone, but on pushing the Philippines to the Asia Cup with Gilas Pilipinas's fourth straight victory. The country beat Indonesia, 100-75, and Thailand twice, 93-61 and 93-69, in the first window in February 2020. The Koreans went down to 2-1 won-lost in Group A. The FIBA Asia Cup 2021 will be held in Jakarta from August 17 to 29. Samjosef Belangel, who finished with 13 points, took only two shots from the three-point area and sank only one that mattered the most. He also had five rebounds and two assists. Naturalized Ange Kouame, who surprised everyone with his three-point shooting prowess, scored 12 points on 3-of-5 shooting from beyond the arc to add to his six rebounds and one. Carl Tamayo had 10 points also for the Filipinos. Kai Sotto didn't disappoint and also scored 11 points, despite having practiced with the team only one day because of 1 14-day home quarantine. The 7-foot-1 center held fort against South Korea's naturalized player Ricardo Ratliffe (203-F-89, college: Missouri) (Ra Gun-ah), and hauled down seven rebounds with two assists and one steal. Dwight Ramos (193-G-98) had 16 points on top of five rebounds, two steals and one block for Gilas Pilipinas. After Hyunjung Lee's game-tying triple, 78-all, Gilas Pilipinas head coach Tab Baldwin called for time with 2.3 seconds remaining to set things out. Dwight Ramos made the inbounds pass to Samjosef Belangel, who dribbled to the left side of the court before releasing the off-balanced buzzer-beater trey. The Filipinos will face the Indonesians on Friday at 6 p.m. It was a remarkable second half surge for the young Filipinos after a distastrous start-where Gilas trailed 16-33 deficit midway the second quarter. But Gilas unleashed a blazing 16-8 run capped by Ramos's game-tying layup that reversed a 36-44 halftime deficit to a 52-all with 3:01 to go in the third period. The Filipinos held on to a five-point lead at the most in the fourth quarter, but trailed anew late in the game, 70-75, with the Koreans in penalty in the final two minutes. Tamayo, Ramos and Justine Baltazar (208-PF-97) had one free throw each before Samjosef Belangel and Kouame scored a basket each to give Filipinos a 78-75 lead with only 10 seconds left in the game. Earlier on Wednesday, China picked up an important victory in its first at the qualifiers at the expense of Japan, 66-57.
Courtesy of: businessmirror.com.ph

Tags : SAMJOSEF BELANGEL, PHILIPPINES U16 NATIONAL TEAM, FIBA ASIA CUP BASKETBALL