Philippines rout Indonesia 89-50 to clinch the 2011 SEABA championship title – Basketball News
Playing at the BritAma Arena, favourites Philippines triggered the scoring rampage right from the tip off and romped to a comprehensive 89-50 victory over the Indonesians in the Finals of the 9th Southeast Asian Basketball Association (SEABA) Championship on Sunday night.
Philippines scored the first 11 points of the game from where they never trailed and clinched the SEABA title after four successive wins in as many days. Andy Mark Barroca paced the efforts for the champions and landed a game-high 17 points to overthrow the hosts.
Rajko Toroman, the Philippines coach said after the game, “We again came out strong and hardly gave them a chance to make a run. We shot bad in the second quarter but we didn’t let them score for more than seven minutes in the third. It was the same story: We stopped their penetrations while playing aggressive in offense”
Barroca’s performance was only the tip of the iceberg. Eugene Marcus Douthit posted another impressive performance with 16 points and 7 rebounds in nearly 23 minutes of action. Christopher John Tiu also finished the game with 13 points and 7 boards which included two blows from beyond the arc.
On the other hand, Indonesian centre Rony Gunawan was the top performer for his team with 14 points and 6 rebounds. Faisal Julius Ahmad also scored 12 points, however the home team failed to match the pace, athleticism and the hot shooting of the Philippines outfit.
Fuelled with the determination to land yet another Southeast Asian Basketball Association title, their third straight and sixth overall, Philippines headed out aggressively and on the back of a 11-0 start, romped to a 21-10 advantage at the end of the first quarter.
The Indonesian team shored up their defence in the second quarter and hampered the offensive system of the Philippines. The Philippines team scored only 15 points in the second period as the home team managed to cut down the huge deficit by 2 points.
The Indonesian maintained its focus on defence in the second half as well. However, they played like a team which was looking to restrict the damage, rather like one with a desire to win. They grassed one shot after another on the offensive end and managed to score only 23 more points over the span of the next 20 minutes. The two times defending champions on the other hand scorched the Indonesians with a 43-point blitz in the same span and wrapped up a comprehensive 89-50 win to clinch the title.
Malaysia, the last team which dethroned the Philippines in the 2005 version of the tournament, also qualified for the 26th FIBA Asia Championship along with Philippines and Indonesia.
Tags: