DOHA, Qatar – Banged up and bruised, Smart Gilas Pilipinas unleashed a ferocious start but couldn’t muster enough energy in the stretch and fell to fancied Al Riyadi of Lebanon, 63-74, to crash out of the race in the 21st FIBA-Asia Champions Cup at the Al Gharafa Sports Club Hall here Friday.
Drawing strength from their zone defense and fluid offense, the Nationals took the initiative early and even took an eight-point advantage twice in a couple of stretches in the second quarter before an inadvertent elbow caught co-skipper Mark Barroca’s face.
Already missing injured JV Casio, Marcio Lassiter and JR Cawaling, Barroca took an elbow straight onto his left eye from a barreling Nate Johnson in a fast break play, sending the spitfire guard sprawling on the floor with his face bloodied.
Barroca, who needed to be tended to by league as well as team doctors, had to sit out more than seven minutes that allowed the Lebanese to go to the break with the count knotted at 34-all.
The Zamboanga native returned in the second half but the Filipinos just didn’t have the fresh legs to match up with Lebanese height advantage and efficient running game spearheaded by Fadi El Khatib, who spewed 12 of his 24 points in the final period.
“We made some errors, we couldn’t catch up with them late in the game because of injuries and lack of fresh legs,” said Smart Gilas coach Rajko Toroman.
RP’s Serbian reinforcement Milan Vucicevic paced the Filipinos with 22 points he spiked with 10 rebounds, three blocks and a punishing defense on former RP import CJ Giles, whom he limited to just eight points.