MANILA – Gilas Pilipinas faltered to Cambodia that was bannered by six naturalized players from the United States, 79-68, during their group stage game in the 32nd Southeast Asian Games on Thursday night in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
Down by 17 points with over four minutes in the contest, Gilas Pilipinas showed some life behind back-to-back baskets from Michael Phillips and Jaymar Perez to cut the deficit to 63-76.
Cambodia responded with a layup from Sayeed Pridgett to make it 78-63 before Gilas Pilipinas got a three-pointer from Perez and an inside hit from Christian Standhardinger to make it a 10-point game but the time was not enough.
Adding insult to the injury was Cambodia head coach Harry Savaya, who was seen taunting the Philippine team several times with “night night” gesture and for calling timeout with just 20 seconds in the game and Cambodia ahead by 10 points.
The said timeout triggered outrage among Gilas Pilipinas head coach Vincent “Chot” Reyes and assistant coach Tim Cone, who charged to Savaya while shouting “have some fucking respect.”
“I just want to be very polite. You all saw what happened. That’s just an unwritten rule. It’s not even coaching ethics. That’s just ethics,” Reyes said regarding Savaya’s endgame timeout.
“If the other coach wants to make a fool of himself, that’s on him. That’s not our problem. I don’t need to comment on his actions. His actions will speak a lot more than anything I can say,” he added, pertaining to Cambodia coach’s taunting.
Darrin Dorsey led the way for the Cambodians with 22 points, including five three-point conversions, while Pridgett contributed 17 markers as the host team went up to 2-0 in the standings.
Oscar Lopes chipped in double-double 13 points and 10 rebounds, Brandon Jerome Peterson and Darius Henderson ended with identical 11 points and nine rebounds for Cambodia.
Standhardinger tallied double-double 14 points and 11 rebounds, Chris Newsome added 11 markers, while Justin Brownlee struggled with just 10 points as Gilas Pilipinas fell to 1-1. They are in a must-win situation against Singapore this afternoon./PN
