        |
||
 |
| 2011
FIBA Asia Championship Wrap-Up: Don't Doubt Him, He's Douthit by Henry Liao for philippinebasketball.ph (10/10/2011) |
| A 6-11 center out of Providence College, the American-born Douthit topped the biennial competitions in scoring and rebounding and tied for third in blocked shots. Guiding the Philippines to a 6-3 record overall, the Syracuse, New York native hit at a 21.9-point clip in nine games, registering shooting percentages of .562 from the field and .676 from the free-throw line. He also plucked down 12.2 rebounds, dished out 1.3 assists and blocked 1.67 shots an outing. Shockingly, the 31-year-old Douthit failed to earn a spot on the five-man FIBA Asia all-tournament team. Instead, it was the fifth-place Islamic Republic of Iran’s Hamed Haddadi who made the grade despite an inferior statistical line when ranged against Douthit’s numbers. The 7-2 Haddadi, a three-year vet with the Memphis Grizzlies of the U.S. National Basketball Association, ranked No. 5 in point production at 15.4 ppg (on .450 FG and .685 FT shooting) – trailing Douthit, Jordan’s naturalized player Rasheim Wright (19.2), Yi Jianlian (16.6) of tournament titlist People’s Republic of China, and sixth-place Lebanon’s Samuel Lonzo Hoskin (16.3) – and tied with seventh-place Japan’s Kosuke Takeuchi for the No. 2 spot in the rebounding ladder at 11.4 rpg. The 26-year-old Haddadi, though, was the runaway leader in shot blocks with 2.89 bpg and owned a 3.6-assist norm. The 2007 and 2009 FIBA Asia champions, the Iranians won all of their six games during the first two rounds of action but dropped an 88-84 decision to Jordan in the knockout quarterfinals to fall into the classification round for fifth to eighth places. With victories of 98-66 and 87-65 against Chinese-Taipei and Lebanon, respectively, in their final two assignments, Iran settled for fifth place and an 8-1 mark. Host China was the lone unblemished team in the 16-team competitions at 9-0 and annexed the crown for a record-extending 15th time in the last 18 FIBA Asia stagings after edging upset-conscious Jordan, 70-69, in the finals. Haddadi was joined on the Mythical Team by Yi (16.6 ppg, 10.8 rpg, 1.44 bpg, 1.1 apg, .477 FG pct.), Japan’s Takuya Kawamura (tournament sixth-best 13.4 ppg, 1.7 rpg, 3.1 apg, 1.22 spg), Iran’s Samad Nikkhah Bahrami (11.2 ppg, 3.4 rpg, 1.8 apg) and Jordan’s Osama Daghles (13.1 ppg, 3.9 rpg, 4.1 apg, 1.56 spg). Other top performers in the recent FIBA Asia Championship that rewarded champion China with a ticket to the 12-team men’s basketball cast in the 2012 London Olympics include third-place South Korea’s naturalized player Moon Taejong (13.3 ppg, 6.2 rpg, 2.3 apg, 1.44 spg), Japan’s Kosuke Takeuchi (13.2 ppg, 11.4 rpg, 1.3 apg), Iran’s Arsalan Kazemi Naeini (12.0 ppg, 8.9 rpg, 1.8 apg, 1.33 spg), Chinese-Taipei’s Chang Tsung-Hsien (11.6 ppg, 2.1 rpg, 1.56 spg), Iran’s Hamed Afagh Eslamieh (11.6 ppg, 2.9 rpg, 2.4 apg, 1.44 spg), United Arab Emirates’ Ibrahim Ahmad (12.8 ppg), South Korea’s Cho Sungmin (11.1 ppg, 2.1 rpg), Jordan’s Zaid Ahmed Abbas (11.0 ppg, 7.1 rpg), Iran’s Mahdi Kamrany (10.7 ppg, 3.9 rpg, 4.1 apg), Chinese Taipei’s Tseng Wen-Ting (10.6 ppg, 5.3 rpg, 3.1 apg), Lebanon’s Ghaled Reda (10.6 ppg), China’s Wang Zhizhi (10.1 ppg, 4.7 rpg), and United Arab Emirates’ Khalil Salem (11.4 ppg). * * * Here are more notes from the recent 26th FIBA Asia Championship in Wuhan, China. Outside of American-born Marcus Douthit, no other player registered a double-digit scoring average for the Philippine team. In six appearances, Marcio Tsongo Sandio Lassiter normed 8.3 points plus 4.8 rebounds, 1.3 assists and 1.17 steals in 32 minutes. Lassiter and another Fil-Am, Chris Lutz, failed to see action in the three-game preliminary round while their eligibility documents were being processed. Sad to say, Lassiter struggled mightily on the offensive end during the medal round (final two games). In the Filipinos’ 75-61 loss to Jordan in the semifinals, he scored just two points and went 0-for-10 from the field. In the bronze-medal game where our beloved country misfired on five of its final eight charity attempts and allowed South Korea to score a come-from-behind 70-68 victory, Lassiter was held to a solitary point and 0-for-6 floor shooting. Aside from Douthit and Lassiter, five other men averaged at least six points for coach Rajko Toroman’s PH unit. Pesky playmaker Jimmy Alapag averaged 7.9 points a game along with 2.1 boards and 2.8 assists and topped the team in three-point conversions with 15 (out of 37 attempts, .405 pct.). Former De La Salle University hotshot Joseph Evans Casio, who was selected by Powerade with the No. 1 overall choice in last month’s professional Philippine Basketball Association draft, hit at a 7.8-point clip. Casio also collected 2.9 assists and 2.0 reebies each time and shot 13-for-40 (.325) from the three-point area. Big man Ranidel de Ocampo, one of the three national teamers from Talk ‘N Text in Asia’s first pro circuit (the others being Alapag and Kelly Williams), chalked up averages of 7.6 points and 3.8 rebounds per contest. Ateneo de Manila University and Western Kentucky University product Japeth Aguilar contributed 6.6 markers and 3.2 boards in just 8.2 minutes and five games. The 6-9 frontliner did not come off the bench in four of the team’s final five assignments, including the last three. Team skipper Chris Tiu, the former Blue Eagles star who will remain with the national basketball program until 2013, normed 6.0 points, 3.0 rebounds and 2.4 assists every time out. The statistical performances of the other members of Team Pilipinas are as follows: Williams (5.4 ppg, 4.7 rpg, 1.3 apg), Pauliasi Taulava (4.4 ppg, 4.8 rpg), Marnel Baracael (6 games, 5.7 ppg, 2.5 rpg), Andy Barroca (8 games, 4.1 ppg, 2.1 apg) and Lutz (6 games, 3.3 ppg, 1.7 rpg). With its fourth-place finish in the FIBA Asia tournament, the Philippines jumped to 45th place from 53rd in the FIBA men’s basketball rankings.
HTML Comment Box is loading comments...
|
|
