MANILA – Dwight Ramos caught fire offensively as Gilas Pilipinas scored a 74-64 victory over Taiwan Mustangs in an exhibition game on Monday night at the PhilSports Arena in Pasig City.
The Levanga Hokkaido reinforcement finished with 19 points to go with four steals and three rebounds to lead the national men’s basketball team in their lone tuneup game before the Olympic Qualifying Tournament.
Naturalized player Justin Brownlee tallied a double-double of 12 points and 15 assists, while centers Kai Sotto and June Mar Fajardo chipped in nine and eight points, respectively.
Gilas Pilipinas were scorching in the opening quarter as they jumped to a 22-7 lead after a three-pointer by Jaymar Perez, but Taiwan retaliated with a 12-3 run to close the gap before Carl Tamayo converted a three-pointer from halfcourt.
The Mustangs kept the match close in the second quarter to cut the deficit to 32-37 at the half before Gilas Pilipinas responded with a strong run to start the third quarter behind Ramos to establish a 58-44 lead.
The Philippine men’s basketball team continued their run in the fourth quarter before the Mustangs attempted to make a run but only managed to cut the deficit to as low as 10 points.
“We were not concerned of winning or losing a basketball game, but we wanted to play a certain style of basketball,” Gilas Pilipinas head coach Tim Cone said in a post-game interview.
“We worked hard on the defensive side… This is exactly what we needed, we wanted [this friendly] to be hard, we did not want it to be easy. If it was easy, it was not going to help us,” he added.
Oscar Lopez top-scored for the Mustangs with 15 points to go with nine rebounds, and two assists, while Alex Cabagnot, Rashawn McCarthy, and Sam Deguara added 13, 12, and 10 markers, respectively.
The Chris Gavina-mentored Mustangs played without their new recruits — former Los Angeles Lakers teammates Dwight Howard, DeMarcus Cousins, and Quinn Cook./ PN
BOX SCORE:
PHILIPPINES 74 – Ramos 19, Brownlee 12, Sotto 9, Fajardo 8, Tamayo 7, Aguilar 6, Perez 3, Amos 3, Oftana 3, Newsome 2, Quiambao 2.
TAIWAN 64 – Lopez 15, Cabagnot 13, McCarthy 12, Deguara 10, Robinson 5, Borja 3, Yan 2, Chung 0, Chiu 0.
Quarterscores: 25-19, 37-32, 58-44, 74-64.
