Vucevic leads Montenegro over Gilas in pre-WC tuneup
NIKOLA VUCEVIC and Montenegro gave Gilas Pilipinas a good sampling of the dog-eat-dog competition that awaits it at the FIBA Basketball World Cup (WC).
The world No. 18 Montenegrins administered a 102-87 beatdown over the Jordan Clarkson-headlined Philippine crew at their closed-door tuneup game Sunday night at the PhilSports Arena in Pasig City.
“This game really made us feel that we’re in the World Cup with the kind of team we’re playing — great talent, together for a long time, very smooth system offensively and defensively,” Philippine coach Chot Reyes said.
His troops actually went toe-to-toe with Montenegro in the first half and even held a 19-11 advantage at one point before fading away.
“I like how we competed. We competed with them for the entire first half (but) just had a letdown defensively in that third quarter. That’s why we play these games; for us to learn what else we can improve on,” he said.
The Montenegrins asserted themselves in the third quarter with Chicago Bulls center Mr. Vucevic banging in 11 to lead a 32-22 exchange that created a 12-point separation.
Mr. Vucevic topscored for Montenegro with 18 to go with nine boards and two blocks while slotman Bojan Dubljevic shot 16 and Kendrick Perry netted 15 with nine assists.
Montenegro, who are set to play in Group D against Egypt, Mexico and Lithuania, spoiled Mr. Clarkson’s 27-point outing. He also accounted for eight of the Philippines’ 19 turnovers.
“When we started the third quarter with three straight turnovers and they scored two 3-pointers and a 2-point shot right away, 8-0 run, basically, that turned the tide,” Mr. Reyes said.
“When we give good, quality teams like Montenegro momentum like that, a lead like that, it’s going to be very hard to recover (from). A brief letdown and you see what happens.”
June Mar Fajardo and Dwight Ramos backed up Mr. Clarkson with 19 and 13, respectively, while Scottie Thompson added eight.
Gilas, which beat Ivory Coast in an earlier tuneup, 85-62, used the duel with the Euro side to gear up for the David-vs-Goliath duel against Italy in the actual World Cup.
The 40th-ranked Filipinos were slated to play No. 31 Mexico last night to cap a three-game final test before launching their World Cup campaign Friday against the Karl Anthony Towns-led Dominican Republic.
After the Dominicans, the Filipinos face Angola Sunday and the heavily-favored Italians on the 29th.
Scores:
Montenegro 102 — Vucevic 18, Dubljevic 16, Perry 15, Mhailovic 12, Radovic 9, Radoncic 8, Ivanovic 7, Popovic 6, Slavkovic 5, Simonovic 4, Ilic 2, Drobnjak 0.
Philippines 87 — Clarkson 27, Fajardo 19, Ramos 13, Thompson 8, Edu 6, Abando 5, Aguilar 5, Malonzo 4, Oftana 0, K. Ravena 0, Perez 0, Pogoy 0, Sotto 0.
Quarterscores: 16-19, 44-42, 76-64, 102-87. — Olmin Leyba
