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No Mercy Nothing Personal

“Marc is the Man! I'm so proud of my boy!” Coach Ivan of Gwapsak was heard bragging to reporters after the Pilipinas U21 team's 122 to 62 win over the UAE U21 team. “He maybe weaker in terms of skills compared to his more senior U21 teammates but what he lacks in skill he compensates with his work ethic and basketball smarts. He scored his second straight double double! And lead all scorers and rebounders also!”

Coach Ivan had much to be proud of Marc Madrigal, the 20 yo junior center for Pilipinas U21 team, as he top scored with 24 points and hauled down 19 rebounds in 31 minutes of play but it was John Dispo, the quiet and unassuming starting small forward who set the tone early as he scored 12 of Pilipinas U21's 40 1st quarter points ending with 21 points, 9 rebounds, 5 steals and 3 blocks.

Before the game, Lolo Smithz manager of the Pilipinas U21 team order his boys to play their hearts out and have no mercy after receiving scathing criticisms from critics and fans about the performance of the team during the first game. Joey Castellano set the tone early with a hard foul on UAE's starting guard Mundakar, injuring him within a few minutes of the 1st quarter. Employing a full court press and pushing the ball, the Pilipinas team raced to a 67 to 29 lead by the end of the 2nd quarter. Karl Suobiron had 6 blocks, Josefino Taghoy pulling down 17 rebounds and Frank Inserto in his first game for the Pilipinas team wowed the crowd with his thudering dunks and drives to the hoop scoring 16 points with 6 steals highlighted how serious the Pilipinas U21 defense was.

“Nothing personal against the UAE team. I felt my boys were just too timid during the first game against India (well they weren't pushovers also) and wanted them to show what they can really do so I let them loose. Hopefully this kind of intensity will carry forward to their next torunament game against South Korea which will be on New Years Eve.”

Christmas Eve Special

A Special Christmas Eve U21 Scrimmage match between 17th ranked Philippines and 20th ranked Peru was attended by a 15,000 strong rabid Cebuano crowd coming to cheer the Pilipinas team on to victory. News of the severe injury to U21 bigman Karl Suobiron didn't dampened the mood as U21 Pilipans bigmen Rubi, Melendrez, Madrigal and Taghoy pounded the inside dominating the paint with a combined 77 points enroute to an easy 117 to 76 emphathic win against the Peru U21 squad. The Pilipinas team outrebounded the Peru team 64 to 30 and had more assists 28 to 17. Mitchell Generoso had a magnificent game playing backup small forward pulling down 9 rebounds and dishing out 8 assists wowing the crowd with his spectacular passes.

But Lolo Smithz wasn't in a smling mood as he was worried about the upcoming games especially with the injury of Karl Suobiron. "The loss of Karl will be felt severely in the coming dates as he was one of our best bigmen. I hope he will recover fast from his injury so that we can have a chance to win in the 2nd round of the tourney. Hopefully his replacement which we will be calling up in the nest couple of days can pick up the slack until he returns. Lets all hope and pray we still can win the Asian Championships this season despite this setback."

3-0 Start

Too much holiday partying by the players was evident as people who bet big on Pilipinas U21 having a large point differential was disappointed as they only won by 30 with the final score of 95 to 65 against the Hanguk U21 team. Pilipinas U21 squad outrebounded Hanguk U21 66 to 37 and had more assists 25 to 9. They also held the opponent to a 26 of 89 shooting (29 percent). Point guard Eulegio Contrivida proved he deserves to be the starting pg of the U21 squad with his steady play and playmaking dishing out 6 assists and pulling down 5 rebounds with a 6-8 shooting night ending with 12 points. Starting SF Dispo was again at the forefront in scoring with 16 markers.

"Our players had too many drinking sessions during the holidays. Out of shape and lack of sleep." lamented Lolo Smithz, the U21 Pilipinas Manager. " I will forgive them but after the holidays no excuses anymore as our next opponent is the Iran U21 team who is at 2-1. This will be our first real test against a very good team. How well we play and how much we can beat them will probably determine how strong our team will be against the even stronger teams like China, Taiwan, Australia and Hong Kong."

Last edited by Lolo Smithz at 1/7/2013 8:29:29 AM

Murphy's Law: Anything that can go wrong will go wrong

A dejected Pilipinas U21 team could be seen as they exited the arena after a stunning and shocking 91 to 102 loss to the Iran U21 squad. Pilipinas squad who were expecting an easy win was shell shocked as Iran gave their best with their starting PG Mani Ferdosi ran circles around the Pilipinas points guards in the 4th quarter. Ferdosi amazed the crowds with his pinpoint passing enabling the Iran squad to pull away in the middle of the 4th quarter. The crowd were treated to a showdown between starting SF's Johnas Dispo of the Pilipinas squad who scored 22 points, 3 steals and 5 rebounds against Farbod Khosravani of the Iran squad who scored 21 points, 11 rebounds 4 assists, 1 steal and 1 block.

"We lost fair and square. The Iran team played with more effort and their players had better game shape than ours. And they passed the ball superbly." Lolo Smithz said apologetically. "Never underestimate your opponent as in basketball they say the ball is round and anything can happen."

"Again my sincere apologies to all the Pilpinas fans for this very disappointing loss. I hope to do better in the succeeding games to achieve our goal of winning the Asian Championships this season."

Ferdosi was just brilliant in that fourth quarter his name just kept drawing up in the commentary .. huge rebound, huge assist, huge score, huge steal.. everything seemed so perfect for him in the 4th. We'll get you back Ferdosi.

Last edited by Don Manoah at 1/7/2013 9:33:29 AM