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U21 Press Release #1

Pilipinas U21 outclasses Vietnam U21 in a 61-point rout: 101-40
Pilipinas U21 power forward duo of Encomienda and Calo lead the way
Vietnam U21 fields 7 of 10 players

For Team Pilipinas U21 (19th seed), the difference between beating and routing Vietnam U21 (77th seed) all came down to energy.

Team Pilipinas U21 asserted its dominance in the interior against a hapless Vietnamese squad, posting huge leads of 23 points by the half (44-21), and 37 points by the end of the third quarter (71-34). Vietnam’s U21 motion offense did little against Team Pilipinas, finishing the game with 16 conversions out of 89 attempts from the field (18%), including an atrocious 2/24 clip from behind the arc (8%). Team Pilipinas U21, on the other hand, used its big men to take control of the paint. Pilipinas U21 forward Ron Encomienda finished the game with a game high 20 points, 12 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal, 1 block, and 3 turnovers in 29 minutes of action.

Bench scoring also played a huge factor in the game, with Team Pilipinas U21 reserves not allowing the Vietnamese U21 squad to score a single point (38-0). Reserve forward Augustus Calo led the Pilipinas U21 bench with a near double-double, logging 18 points, 9 rebounds 1 assist, 1 steal, and 1 block in 19 minutes.

In what appears to be one of more peculiar events of the game, the Vietnamese U21 squad decided to field only 7 of its 10 players in the roster. Coach Amarant could not be reached for comment as to why this approach was utilized. Forward Chanh Luu led the Vietnamese with 13 points, 7 rebounds, 2 assists, and 2 steals.

Pilipinas U21 is expected to win against 76th seed UAE, while Vietnam U21 looks forward to bounce back against favored New Zealand U21 (38th seed).

Stat lines of the game:

Vietnam U21
The Vietnam U21 reserves played a total of 15 minutes, finishing with 1 rebound and 2 turnovers.

Pilipinas U21
All players logged at least 17 minutes of playing time, with only 1 player failing to score (Allan Leuterio – 2 rebounds, 2 assists, 4 steals)

Both teams did not do well from behind the arc: Vietnam converted only 2 out of 24 attempts, while Pilipinas converted only 1 of 7 seven attempts


Last edited by fpanzer10 at 01/02/2021 01:21:51

Thanks for this great write-up Sir! Looking forward to the next releases. :)

To All, please welcome our official PR manager, fpanzer10, team manager of Waffen Engineering (54605).

Great start by our boys this week. Special props to Encomienda showing why he's one of the leaders of this team and why he was with last year's team at 20y/o only. On to the next one vs UAE!

Last edited by jeorge9 at 01/02/2021 00:48:08

Shout out also to the managers who have been saving players from going bot or to a foreign owner. Malaking tulong yan. Kung may training questions kayo feel free to reach out. If alam niyo na ginagawa niyo thats great as well just give the coaches a heads up kung ano plano ninyo para hindi redundant ang positions that we are training for. We want to have a more diverse team in the future capable of playing different types of offense and defense. Wag natin sayangin training efforts ninyo.

Pilipinas U21 News Update #2

Pilipinas U21 thumps UAE U21: 129-50
All Pilpinas players scored

It did not take long for Team Pilipinas (18th seed) to dominate a hapless UAE (76th seed) squad with a score of 129-50, getting their second win in as many outings in the S52 Championship Tournament.

For Team Pilipinas, the game was well decided by the end of the first half.

Team UAE U21 simply had no answer for point guard Billy del Prado, who finished the game with 40 points, 5 rebounds, 6 assists, and 2 blocks in 32 minutes of action. The entire UAE squad scored 50 points for duration of the game. “We did win by a lot, but we were also careless (in handling the ball). This should not happen in our next matches,” said del Prado during the post-game interview with media. “Our brilliant shooting display does not mean we can turn the ball over a lot”.

Givon Ushnanai led Team UAE U21 with 19 points, 7 rebounds, and 2 steals.

“We want to take advantage of our matches in Pool C, given we are going to play against powerhouse (7th seed Taiwan),” Coach Jeorge said when asked to comment on the team’s performance. “We want to make sure our point difference is high, in case of a tie-breaker.”

Team Pilipinas U21 is expected to win against 96th seed Pakistan, while Team UAE U21 is looking to get its first win against 37th seed New Zealand.

Stat lines of the game:

Pilipinas
- The Pilipinas U21 reserves scored as much as the entire UAE squad (50 points)
- All 10 Pilipinas U21 players scored against UAE U21
- Pilipinas had an efficient 61% (53/87) clip from the field, including 58% (14/24) from the 3-point line, and 90% (9/10) from the stripe

UAE
- Team UAE U21 outhustled Team Pilipinas by creating more turnovers (13 vs 5), and getting more steals (8 vs 1)
- Team finished with 16% FG shooting (15/94), including 16% from behind the arc (5/32), and converted 68% of its free throws (15/22)

tagging

U21 Press Release: Pilipinas outclasses Pakistan, 108-46
Six players score in double figures

For Team Pilipinas, all they needed was 12 minutes to have the game decided against Pakistan.

Six Pilipinas players scored in double digits against a hapless Pakistan squad. Pilipinas center Ron Encomienda led the team with a double-double, posting 19 points, 16 rebounds, 5 assists, 1 block, and 0 turnovers in 29 minutes of playing time. Guard Erald Ruz scored a highly efficient 17 points (8/9 FG, 1/1 3PT), 9 rebounds, 2 assists, 4 blocks, and 1 turnover in 29 minutes. Both are now wanted by the PNP for assault against the Pakistanis.

Pilpinas dominated the game from the opening whistle, finishing the game with more rebounds (64-47), assists (22-12), steals (5-2), and blocks (18-4). “We are happy to win by a huge margin against Pakistan. This boosts our chances against bracket favorite Taiwan and darkhorse New Zealand, in the event we get to use the point differential” Coach Jeorge said during the post-game press conference.

19-year olds Rubayyat Sharif and Keykhosro Kermani led a young Pakistan squad with 13 points each. “We are a very young squad, and look forward to see our players develop into highly effective stalwarts in 1-2 seasons. I am proud of what they showed against the Philippines” Pakistan coach wujekpila said after the game. Pakistan has five 18-year old players in its roster.

Pilipinas looks forward to get its fourth win against 36th ranked New Zealand, while Pakistan hopes to get its first win against 75th ranked Vietnam

Stats of the game:
• The average age of Pakistan’s lineup is 19.2 years, while the average age for team Pilipinas players is 20.8 years
• Though Pilipinas finished the game with a 62-point win, their 3-point shooting efficiency has to improve. They finished the game with a 23% clip from behind the arc (3/13)

U21 Preview: Pilipinas vs New Zealand

17th ranked Pilipinas faces 39th ranked New Zealand tomorrow at an undisclosed venue in Hong Kong due to COVID restrictions.

This will effectively be a battle of who gets to join Taiwan at first place, as the 7th ranked Taiwanese are expected to win against 49th ranked Singapore.

“We are looking to win big against New Zealand and hope the Taiwanese don’t win by a lot against Singapore (because of point differential). For all we know, the Singaporeans might beat Taiwan tomorrow. We’ll never know, let’s see,” Coach Jeorge said in an interview. “We must be on guard in our succeeding games, one loss may affect our position in the next round. As much as possible, we want to play against lower ranked teams. The goal is to sweep the round and beat early favorite Taiwan, but that doesn’t mean we will be complacent in our other matches. I always tell my boys to give it their all and leave everything they have on the court. Our (coaching and training) staff looks after the development and conditioning of our players, we can only hope that will translate to wins.”

It is unknown as of press time what the team strategy will be, but coach Jeorge gave all players the day off to rest and be with their families to watch the sunset from Victoria Peak. “Tomorrow will be a crucial game, might as well have them spend this with family so they can get some inspiration,” coach Jeorge said.

U21 Press Release: Pilipinas thumps New Zealand, 91-59
Woeful shooting contributed to New Zealand loss

Team Pilipinas established its dominance against New Zealand last Monday, routing the Kiwis 91-59.

In a shooting match reminiscent of the UConn – Butler championship game in 2011, both squads could not find their mark in the field. The Filipinos finished the game with a 39% clip from the field, including an atrocious 11% efficiency from behind the arc. The Kiwis, however, were held to a field goal efficiency of 24%.

“I would say this is an ugly win. We could not get our rhythm all night, and we are fortunate to have outrebounded and outhustled New Zealand. Hopefully our play improves in our next match,” Coach Jeorge said after the game. “We will do drills focused on shooting tomorrow. Merchen (Dagiagnao) and Edgar (Cerdon) were especially terrible today. We cannot afford to play like this against bracket favorite Taiwan” Jeorge said.

Bill del Prado led Pilipinas with 15 points, 3 rebounds, and 1 assist in 28 minutes. Brody Farmer, on the other hand, led New Zealand with 17 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals, and 1 block in 36 minutes.

The Filipinos are looking to get their fifth win against 46th ranked Singapore, while New Zealand faces a tough Taiwan squad next week.

U21 Press Release: Pilipinas defeats Singapore, 91-57
Second half onslaught led to rout

There were no words from Coach Jeorge during the half time break. Instead, the team watched a video presentation on leadership and commitment to get his point across. The players got the message, loud and clear.

After a lackluster performance in the first half against Singapore, the Filipinos outscored their Southeast Asian neighbors, 58-27 in the second half to win 91-57 at the Arena in Hong Kong. For the Filipino fan base in Hong Kong, mostly composed of OFWs, this was a sigh of relief. “I asked my employer if I can take my day off today to watch our team, I am very lucky they agreed,” said a migrant worker, who asked to remain anonymous. “I am so happy we won. I thought I would see them lose against Singapore.”

“We did not talk. Instead, I had my boys watch Invictus during the break, specifically the scene where South Africa had to defend against New Zealand for seven minutes.”

“Heads up! Look into my eyes… Do you hear? Listen to your country!” were the words South African Rugby captain François Pienaar said to his team when faced with a resilient New Zealand squad in the 1995 Rugby World Cup Final. The Filipino players were heard shouting war cries from the locker room before coming out to play the second half. An estimated 10,000 Filipinos were in attendance to watch the game.

It was a surprising turnaround for the Filipinos, allowing the Singaporean to score only 8 points in the third quarter. “Our offense fell flat in the second half; I do not know what else to say. We contained them (Pilipinas) in the first half and we were hoping to keep it close. We are a small country with few teams, so I still happy with what we achieved today,” Singaporean coach BuzzRBeater said during their post-game conference.

“We have a lot of countrymen counting on us to win this tournament, how can we let them down? We will face our toughest opponent in this bracket next week, so we need all the support we can get,” said Coach Jeorge as they were entering the locker room after the game.

Merchenito Dagiagnao led the Filipinos with Terrence Ross-like line of 20 points, 2 rebounds, 3 assists, and 1 steal in 27 minutes of action. They are expected to keep it close against powerhouse Taiwan (ranked 7th) next week.

Guard Chenbagarajan Ali led the Singaporeans with 15 points, 4 rebounds, 2 steals, and 1 block in 35 minutes. They are going to play 41st ranked New Zealand to close the elimination phase of the tournament.

Thanks for this write-up coach. Si=olid as usual ad very much reflect what I was actually thinking during and after the game. Especially that half time silent treatment, HAHAHA!

Special props to Dagiagnao and his owner, he's been mired by bad GS during the early parts of the season, but he is now starting to show what he's made of.

Next week will be our toughest test yet, the final game of round 1 against perennial contender Taiwan! Please keep up the GS and for those that I have connected with (you guys know who you are) be ready for possible call-ups! ;)