Gilas Pilipinas' Jayson Castro finds a glimmer of daylight and fires a shot against two Chinese giants in Saturday's 2015 FIBA Asia Championship match at the Changsha Social Work Colleges Gymnasium in Changsa, China. JAY R. GOTERA Saudi Gazette
MANILA — Using its homecourt advantage to the hilt, China's national basketball team cashed in on numerous questionable referees' calls and non-calls en route to a 78-67 victory over Gilas Pilipinas Saturday night to win the 2015 FIBA Asia crown and the ticket to the Rio Olympics that goes with it. The Filipinos were left fuming as the Chinese made sure they stood little chance of pulling out a victory in front of a hostile and boisterous hometown crowd at the Changsha Social Work Colleges Gymnasium in Changsa, China. In the battle for third place, Iran defeated Japan, 68-63. The Filipinos had a good start, taking a 5-0 lead, before the Chinese started lighting the scoreboard with barrages of three-point shots egged on by the raucous crowd. Matched up against a team of gangling giants, the Filipinos had difficulty finding their shots made worse by the evidently biased officiating. China led by 13 points, 46-33, at the end of the first half. The Filipinos played their hearts out but couldn't get the breaks of the game as the Chinese behemoths coasted to victory, their 16th Asian title. Gilas took the silver medal for the second successive holding of the biennial tournament. The Filipinos will now have to go to the Olympic Qualifying Tournament in July next year, where they will tangle with even tougher teams from all over the world, in the quest for an Olympic ticket. Naturalized center Andray Blatche led Gilas with 17 points and five rebounds. Jayson Castro, who shone in nearly all the games played by Gilas in the tournament, was fully covered by the Chinese defense, as he managed only eight hard-earned points on a pitiful 3-of-14 shooting from the field. China led by 16 points, 60-44, in the third quarter. Calvin Abueva tried to provide the spark for a Gilas comeback, hitting successive baskets to trim the lead to 10, 60-50, to end the quarter. But China scored five straight points at the start of the final period to take a commanding 65-50 lead. After Abueva fouled out, the Chinese simply rolled over their rivals as the final buzzer sounded. Even before the game, the Chinese were already doing their best to rattle the Gilas players, coaches and officials. Right after the game, Gilas patron Manny V. Pangilinan blasted the Chinese organizers of the tournament in a series of rants on Twitter. First off, Pangilinan complained about the delayed arrival of the electric bus that was to bring the Gilas team from the hotel to the Changsha Social Work Colleges gymnasium. As such, the Filipinos had little time for warm-up before the game. Pangilinan also complained that the coaches, officials and other members of the Philippine delegation were not given tickets to the venue, forcing them to buy the tickets in the black market that cost five times as much as the gate tickets. A day earlier, the Gilas' semifinal game against Japan was pushed back by 30 minutes, cutting the recovery time for the Filipino players before Saturday's game while the Chinese side had all the time to rest.
