Gilas Pilipinas pulled off an escape act as great as Harry Houdini’s.
After leading by as many as 21 points in the third quarter, Gilas turned cold as Iran clawed back into the game, grabbed the lead with 62 seconds left and came oh so close to crushing the Filipinos’ medal hopes at the 19th Asian Games.
So far, Team Philippines had EJ Obiena’s gold in pole vault, Arnel Mandal’s silver in wushu and nine bronze medals from taekwondo, wushu, tennis, BMX racing, weightlifting and yesterday, in sepak takraw.The team of Jason Huerte, Rheyjey Ortouste, Vince Alyson Torno and Mark Joseph Gonzales took the first set against Indonesia but dropped the next two, 21-15, 24-25, 17-19, and lost in the semifinals of the men’s quadrant in sepak takraw.
“Ubusan kami ng talino sa ring,” said Paalam, fighting at a heavier weight here after winning the silver at 54kg in Tokyo. Expect the Chinese, which clobbered South Korea in the other quarterfinal match, 84-70, to come in full force against the Filipinos.Brownlee, well-rested after an eight-minute stint against Qatar last Monday, got off to a fiery start, hitting his first three shots from rainbow country and powering Gilas to a 23-14 lead. He had 16 of his 36 points in the opening period that ended with Gilas ahead, 28-22.
On the other side, Iran clicked from afar with Mohammadsina Vahedi igniting a 13-0 run that narrowed the gap to 67-73. Fajardo and Calvin Oftana kept the Filipinos’ heads above water but the 6-foot-3 Iranian hotshot kept sinking treys, including one that made it 79-80. “But we should have never put ourselves in that position. As much as we would have wanted a prettier win, we’d take any win at this point,” he added.“We were down by 20 and we still had a great chance to win the game. We had a great chance. I’m proud of our team, our players,” he added before taking a swipe at the tournament format allowing more than one naturalized player in one team.
The reigning SEA Games champions were set to see action in the final late last night. The women’s 4x400 team of Lauren Hoffman, Robyn Brown, Angel Frank and Maureen Maureen Schrijvers also made it to the final against Thailand, Vietnam, India, Bahrain, Sri Lanka and Mongolia.
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