Smart Gilas Pilipinas had suffered another setback with the recently concluded FIBA Asia Champions Cup 2011. They settles for fourth place after being beaten by Qatar with 64-71, in the battle for the bronze. The Filipinos were no matched to the tactics used by the Qataris to control the tempo of Smart Gilas especially in the outside shooting.
The only player who was still playing consistently for the National Team was the naturalized center Marcus Douthit scoring with a game-high 28 points and 17 rebounds but was not enough against the rampaging Qataris who had answered every shots given by the Filipinos.
The loss was the second setbacks suffered by Smart Gilas against a team which was one of the title-contender having won as a runner-up last year in FIBA Asia Champions Cup. They managed to established a good defense from the outside keeping the Filipinos struggling for their outside shooting.
In almost all departments the Qataris dominated the Filipinos in the entire game. In rebounds they were nowhere, with 56 rebounds garnered by the Qataris while Smart Gilas had only 38 in a performance which was not worthy of an Asian champions. The Middle Eastern Team such as Qatar had already a height advantage, had a good ball movement and an excellent outside shooting.
According to Serbian coach Rajko Toroman, their game against Qatar was their worst performance in FIBA Asia Champions Cup. Toroman was quoted as saying “We were not mentally ready to play this game. We were totally empty.” said the Smart Gilas mentor.
Al Rayyan of Qatar leading scorers were Leslie with 19 points, Targuy Alban Ngombo added with 18 points and Y(–foul word(s) removed–)en Musa with 11 points.
In an interview with the Qatar coach Brian Rowsom regarding their win against Gilas, he was quoted as saying “We really tried to stop them from making three-point shots which is a large part of their offense. We also wanted to force them to take low percentage shots so that we can get the rebounds. I thought that won us the game.” said the coach.
