BOCAUE, Bulacan – The Philippines and Australia got into a free-for-all that resulted in their 2019 FIBA World Cup Asian Qualifiers match getting cut short Monday night at the Philippine Arena.
Gilas Pilipinas suffered a lopsided 53-89 default loss to the visiting team in the third window of the games.
Nine Filipino and four Australian players got ejected, and the games resumed with three Gilas and five Boomers cagers remaining in the arena after an interruption that lasted around 40 minutes.
Australia Boomers was way ahead at 79-48 with over four minutes left in the third quarter when the brawl started as Gilas’ Roger Pogoy intentionally bumped and sent Boomers’ Chris Goulding to the floor.
Boomers’ Daniel Kickert retaliated, knocking Pogoy down with a strong elbow onto the head. Then Kickert was attacked by Pogoy’s teammates Jayson Castro and Andray Blatche.
As the melee spread, other Gilas players at the bench – Carl Bryan Cruz, Calvin Abueva and reserve player Troy Rike – dragged and bludgeoned Goulding off the court.
Terrence Romeo got into the brawl as well, throwing two quick hammer fists onto the head of Australia’s Thon Maker. The latter tried to retaliate with a flying kick that failed to hit anyone.
On the other side of the court, Cruz and Castro chased Kickert while reserve players Jio Jalalon and Allein Maliksi and spectators Jean Marc Pingris and Abu Tratter figured in a fistfight with Australia’s Nathan Sobey.
After deliberations lasting some 40 minutes, nine players from Gilas – Pogoy, Castro, Blatche, Abueva, Cruz, Romeo, Japeth Aguilar, Troy Rosario, and Matthew Wright – were ejected. Sobey, Kickert, Maker, and Goulding from Australia were thrown off court as well.
The game continued with only June Mar Fajardo, Gabe Norwood and Baser Amer remaining on Gilas’ side. The Philippines gradually fouled out, and the match ended with Australia 36 points ahead.
Gilas was still managing with Fajardo and Blatche scoring from the inside after being down by as much as 9 points in the opening quarter. But Boomers started to pull away in the second frame on triples from Kickert.
Australia’s lead grew further in the third with NBA player Matthew Dellavedova and Goulding finding their outside touch, making headway by as much as 31 points before the brawl broke out.
Goulding led Australia with 20 points – much of them came in the third quarter – while Kickert added 12 markers. Boomers finished the first round of the qualifiers with a 5-1 win-loss slate.
Blatche had double-double 12 points and 10 rebounds for Gilas while Fajardo had 10 markers before he was saddled with four early fouls. The Philippines finished on second place in the group with 4-2./PN
