Smart Gilas Five Faces Al Riyadi of Lebanon
The Philippine Smart Gilas basketball team continues to make ripples as they are gearing to clinch the finals berth against very tough and top favorite Al Riyadi of Lebanon in the semifinal phase of the 21st Dubai Invitational at the Al Ahli Indoor Stadium. Lacking in height and hampered by injuries of some key players, the Filipinos compensate with their speed, outside sniping and a big fighting heart. The Filipinos added a heftier Al Jazeera of Egypt side to it growing list of victims. Playing with a high-octane offense and gutsy defensive plays the Filipinos rallies tenaciously in the crucial stretch as they overcome a 15 point deficit and eventually wrapping the game with a dramatic 82-78 win to set up a semif-final duel with the fancied Al Riyadi team.
Al Riyadi boasts of former RP import CJ Giles, Nate Johnson and Shawn Colson, Joel Vogel and a naturalized American born player Matt Freije a US born Lebanese and Canadian-raised Lebanese in Ali Mahmoud.
Smart Gilas Serbian Coach Rajko Toroman said, “I know Lebanon is a big team, we were actually joking that this team is an American team plus three imports and members of the Lebanese squad.
The Filipino team defeated the same team in Jakarta last year, but Al Riyadi made big improvements this time. They are now a favored team over the Smart Gilas side, but the Filipinos knows when to respond when the tough gets going and this is evident with their numerous upsets victories they posted recently.
The Filipinos is a big surprize package in the tournmament, they played big in the elimination round and showed resiliency in upending the Al Jazeera of Egypt to book a slot in the semis. With their awesome performance so far, they are in the right track of finally redeeming and claiming lost basketball glory once the Philippines enjoyed. The Philippine basketball quintet was a world powerhouse in basketball in the 1950′s to 1960′s and one of the best team in Asian in the 1970′s through 1980′s.
Tags: 21st Dubai Invitational at the Al Ahli Indoor Stadium, Al Jazeera, CJ Giles, The Philippine Smart Gilas basketball team
Basketball, Philippine Baskeball | howitzer | 
September 11, 2010 6:14 pm
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