ALLAN THE MAN

The SMART-Gilas Pilipinas national team lost its final assignment, 76-63, against Qatar to settle for fourth place in the FIBA Asia Cup Saturday in Tokyo, Japan.

The loss put SMART-Gilas out of the running for a top-three finish and the automatic berth to next year’s FIBA Asia Championships in Lebanon that comes with it.

The SMART-Gilas Pilipinas national team lost its final assignment, 76-63, against Qatar to settle for fourth place in the FIBA Asia Cup Saturday in Tokyo, Japan.

The Philippine side shot a miserable 2-of-18 (11 percent) from beyond the arc and 38 percent overall as it couldn’t sustain a second half comeback run.

SMART-Gilas was still in striking distance, 61-54, midway through the fourth quarter when Qatar unleashed hit four three-pointers in a 12-2 run to seal the game.

This time, there was no fourth quarter magic for the SMART-Gilas Pilipinas national team.

Iran caught fire in the second half to down the Philippines, 77-60, and book the first finals seat in the FIBA Asia Cup Friday in Tokyo, Japan.

SMART-Gilas was down by just three points, 50-47, when Iran unleashed a 12-0 run to bridge the third and fourth quarters to put the game away. The Philippines’ woes were compounded by foul trouble on its big men. Marcus Douthit, Ranidel De Ocampo, and Sonny Thoss all missed either part or all of the fourth quarter because of foul trouble.

The SMART-Gilas Pilipinas national team used a furious fourth quarter run to turn back Chinese Taipei, 75-68, in the quarterfinals of the FIBA Asia Cup Thursday in Tokyo, Japan.

SMART Gilas 2.0 finds itself crossing path with Chinese-Taipei yet again as the Taiwanese drew the Filipinos as their quarterfinal opponents in the FIBA Asia Cup championship in Tokyo, Japan Tuesday night.

The Taiwanese banked on a perfectly executed alley-oop play which Lu Cheng-ju converted at the buzzer for a thrilling 75-73 win on the final day of the preliminaries at the Ota gym.

Watch Full Game Replay of Smart Gilas Philippines vs Macau National team in the preliminary round of 2012 FIBA Asia Cup being held in Tokyo, Japan. 

Gilas Philippines over-matched Macau by 52 points, with that Philippines has a record of 3 Wins and 1 Loss and ties for the top spot in the Group A.

The scores:

The SMART-Gilas Pilipinas national team hardly needed naturalized center Marcus Douthit as they thumped an overmatched Macau side, 98-46, to close their Group A campaign with a 3-1 record and at least a tie for the top spot of their group in the 4th FIBA Asia Cup in Tokyo, Japan.

Jeff Chan scored 18 points while Jay-R Reyes and Gary David scored 12 points apiece as the Philippines cruised for their third victory despite opting to give Douthit the day off.

SMART-Gilas showed they were clearly a class above their opponents, a team with an average age of just 20 years old and whose tallest player stood at just 6-foot-7, as they fired off a 14-0 run right off the bat.

Watch Full Game Replay of Smart Gilas Philippines vs Uzbekistan Here. Gilas Philippines defeats Uzbekistan by 35. 

Game Highlights:

-Jeff Chan led Smart Gilas with 20 points (4/7 from 3-point range)

-Matt Ganuelas Rosser with 8 points, 11 rebounds, 4 assists and 3 steals

-Smart Gilas shot well from the field (44%) and in the 3-point area (8/20)

-9 players with 5 or more points

The SMART-Gilas Pilipinas national team barely broke a sweat in dispatching Uzbekistan, 85-50, for its second straight victory in the FIBA Asia Cup in Tokyo, Japan.

Jeff Chan led all scorers with 20 points for the Philippine team, which was never seriously threatened in the game. SMART-Gilas limited Uzbekistan to just five points in the second quarter to break away for a 39-21 halftime lead before cruising to victory in the second half.

Chan, who had only managed to score five points total in the Philippines’ first two games in the tournament, had a breakout performance with 20 points, including four three-pointers, in just 18 minutes of play while Jared Dillinger was the only other Filipino in double figures. Five others players scored seven or more points for SMART-Gilas.

MANILA, Philippines – Smart Gilas Pilipinas crushed the Lebanon Cedars to notch their first win, 78-68, in the FIBA Asia Cup in Tokyo, Japan on Saturday.

Marcus Douthit led the Filipinos with a double-double performance of 25 points and 21 rebounds.

Douthit also received scoring support from his teammates and this enabled Gilas to upset Fadi El-Khatib’s high-scoring game.

Fadi El-Khatib led Lebanon with 24 points.

Naturalized center Marcus Douthit showed exactly why he’s such an important member of the SMART-Gilas national team as he dominated on the floor to help the Philippines defeat Lebanon, 78-68, in their Group A clash in the 4th FIBA Asia Cup in Tokyo, Japan.

Douthit posted 25 points, 21 rebounds and one crucial block on longtime Lebanon star Fadi El-Khatib with under a minute to play as SMART-Gilas notched its first win of the tournament.

Gilas trailed Lebanon after a very tight first half that saw neither team lead by more than five points. Behind El-Khatib, who had 15 points and six rebounds in the first two periods, and their own naturalized player Garnett Thompson, who had 13 and seven, the Lebanese held a slim three-point edge, 41-38, at the halftime break.

Philippines, represented in FIBA Asia Cup 2012 by Smart Gilas, suffered defeat Friday, September 14, from the hands of a tall but inexperienced team from China.

The Filipino squad wasn’t able to hold on to an eight-point lead they built off a strong second-half, missed 10 of 24 free throws and seven straight three-point shots going to the final minutes of the game.

SCORES PER QUARTER: 18-15, 40-33, 54-56, 71-68

The SMART-Gilas Pilipinas fell just short against a taller China squad, 71-68, in their opening match in the 4th FIBA Asia Cup Friday in Tokyo, Japan.

China, playing with a young team with an average age of just 20, grabbed a lead early after hounding the Philippines to bad three-point shooting and taking advantage of foul trouble on SMART-Gilas center Marcus Douthit.

But SMART-Gilas cut loose after the break, turning a 40-33 halftime deficit into a 56-54 advantage in the third quarter.

Here's Smart-Gilas Pilipinas LIVE Game Schedules:

After their victorious campaign in the William Jones Cup 2012 held in Taiwan, the Smart-Gilas Pilipinas will play in the upcoming FIBA Asia Cup 2012 (former Stankovic Cup) Preliminary Round to be held on September 14-22, 2012 at the Ota Gymnasium, Tokyo, Japan.

Below are the Gilas’ game schedule in 2012 FIBA Asia Cup Preliminary Rounds:

September 14 at 4:30pm – Philippines vs China

September 15 at 7:00 pm – Philippines vs Lebanon

September 16 at 2:00 pm – Philippines vs Uzbekistan

September 17 at 11:30am – Philippines vs Macau

SMART-Gilas Pilipinas national coach Chot Reyes has named his lineup for the 2012 FIBA Asia Cup slated in Tokyo, Japan.

Ginebra San Miguel’s LA Tenorio, who won Most Valuable Player honors in SMART-Gilas’ title run in the 34th William Jones Cup, leads the lineup along with holdovers Gabe Norwood and Jeff Chan of Rain or Shine, Gary David of GlobalPort, Larry Fonacier and Ranidel De Ocampo of Talk ‘N Text, Enrico Villanueva of Barako Bull, Jay-R Reyes of Meralco, Sonny Thoss of Alaska, Filipino-American Matthew Rosser and naturalized center Marcus Douthit. Talk ‘N Text forward Jared Dillinger will be the only new addition to the team, with Meralco guard Sol Mercado being rendered ineligible because of FIBA Asia rules concerning foreign-born citizens.

Marc Pingris will not be part of the SMART-Gilas Pilipinas lineup for the FIBA Asia Cup 2012 this September, coach Chot Reyes said on Thursday.

Reyes told InterAKTV in a telephone interview that the San Mig Coffee forward is still on vacation and recuperating from a neck injury suffered during the Governors’ Cup finals.