Thoughts on The Gilas 12 Vs Chinese-Taipei

The twelve men who will play for Gilas Pilipinas versus Chinese-Taipei has just been revealed.

Coach Chot Reyes has named Jayson Castro, Andray Blatche, JuneMar Fajardo, Terence Romeo, Calvin Abueva, Troy Rosario, Japeth Aguilar, Matthew Wright, Gabe Norwood, Roger Pogoy, Jio Jalalon, and Allein Malicsi to our twelve man lineup.

Left out of the lineup are Baser Amer, Carl Bryan Cruz and Gilas Cadet Troy Rike.

Here are three thoughts on our lineup:

Thought #1 No surprises here.
The twelve named were the most obvious choices. Baser Amer is still new to the program and has not proven he should be picked over Jalalon (who wouldn't have been picked either had Kiefer Ravena been available), Carl Bryan Cruz is basically Matthew Wright-light, and Troy Rike is only with the team to further expedite his entry to future Gilas lineups.

Gilas Loses To Chinese Taipei, 79-84!

It hurts.

13 point lead in the 3rd, Jones Cup invite being rescinded, repeatedly humiliated politically despite our apologies...All these came into play as the Filipino natin mourn tonight's loss.

But despite the loss, I am not among the many Filipinos who are embittered by this.

Why? For three reasons.

Halftime: Gilas Leads Chinese Taipei 43-42!

Gilas got off to a bad start once again, aided by some hot three point shooting by the Taiwanese.

But the Filipinos regained their bearings int he second quarter, thanks to some stout defense from Japeth Aguilar and some sterling shooting from Jimmy Alapag.

Gilas seems to be getting into their groove and all they need to do now is continue playing the way they did in the second quarter for them to defeat Chinese Taipei.

Halftime: Philippines Vs Chinese Taipei

The Gilas Nationals continue to play hard physical defense and coordinated team basketball to lead the home team Chinese Taipei, 49-36.

Marcus Douthit leads Gilas in scoring with 14 points, with Japeth Aguilar scoring 10. The Pinoy duo is making the Taiwanese pay with their play inside, taking Taiwan's star center Tseng Wen-Ting out of his comfort zone with bruising defense and then taking him out of the game by drawing fouls of him.

Lin Chih-Chieh leads Taiwan with 10 points.