Gilas just too strong for Vietnam

MANILA, Philippines — Gilas Pilipinas ran into stiff opposition early on but asserted its might and forced one of the tournament’s toughest challengers, Vietnam, to submission.

With five-time PBA MVP June Mar Fajardo doing June Mar Fajardo things, the Philippines overpowered a gutsy Vietnamese opponent, 110-69, to roar into the Southeast Asian Games men’s basketball semifinals last night at MOA Arena.

Fajardo dropped 23 points and 12 rebounds on Vietnam, doing the most damage in a third-quarter barrage that the Philippines unleashed to seize control, 80-57.

With the Filipino juggernaut in full motion, there was really not much the Vietnamese could do.

“It’s a real struggle early,” said coach Tim Cone, whose wards were up by only 12 at the turn, failing to contain Vietnamese-American Chris Dierker, who already had 19 at the halfway point.

“Vietnam got some real athletes, different from (first day opponent) Singapore and they had a go-to guy in Dierker. It was tough matching up with his size and quickness. But as expected, we were able to wear them down with our depth and talent.”

“We’re 12-man deep and anyone from the 12 can go out and be a force. We just want to be carfeul trying to do everything in the first quarter.”

LA Tenorio (14), Vic Manuel (14), Troy Rosario (12), Stanley Pringle (11) and Greg Slaughter (10) complemented Fajardo’s double-double with twin-digit scoring.

In contrast, Vietnam relied heavily on Dierker, who banged in 28 markers and nine boards. Duong Justin Young was the only other offensive threat with 13.

After a mouthful from Cone at the break, Gilas came out firing and hit its opponent with 10 unanswered points to widen the gap to 62-40.

“We came out in the second half the same way we should have come out in the first half. We were a defensive presence. We made stops. We got a steal to start the quarter and that kind of keyed us into the rhyhthm that we wanted to play at,” said Cone.

Gilas’ second victory – a followup to their easy 110-58 massacre of Singapore – sent them into the Last-4 with still one game to play in the elims against Myanmar (0-2) today.

Vietnam finished the elims with 2-1 and will advance to the next round as No. 2.

Cone said the country should take full advantage of having big men like Fajardo and Slaughter to boost its stock in international play.