Gilas 59, Iran 78!

It was an ugly game. The only players who played decently were Mark Barroca and Japeth Aguilar. And, by halftime, they, plus Asi Taulava, were the only ones still making the effort to play by Toroman's system.

Douthit's weaknesses have now been exposed by Haddadi. Give Douthit the long jumper and he falls in love with it. Douthit went 0-7 in the first 10 minutes of the game, scoring only 2 points on free throws and the Iranians went up 11-2.


He went 5-16 in the first half, gave up a gazillion points to Haddadi and gummed up the offense by going for the long 2 instead of giving the ball up. He did remember in the fourth, flipping the ball to a wide open Hontiveros who buried the three, which elicited comments from Jason Webb and Richard del Rosario that he should have been doing that from the start instead of taking the long jumper.

Making things worse for Gilas is the injury to Mark Barroca. Barroca was the lone shining light in the game and he pulled up lame after being pushed by an Iranian player. With Casio out, Barroca was the only one capable enough to run Toroman's system. Chris Tiu may be handsome and plucky but he isn't a playmaker. He's better suited at the SG position, although he was also ineffective tonight.

If either Casio or Barroca will be out for a long period of time, it could spell disaster for the Gilas campaign in the FIBA-Asia Championships.