The Gilas Pilipinas will be facing an undefeated Qatar national basketball team after their successful conquest of Japan yesterday night at the Mall of Asia Arena. The national team of Qatar is considered as one of the toughest team in Group B coming into the second round with 3 wins in a row. During the second round Japan defeated Qatar with the score at 75-61.
Here’s our scouting report with the Qatar National Basketball Team:
Qatar’s starting frontline Erfan Ali Saeed and Yaseen Musa has solid finishing around the basket and in midrange. Musa averaged 13 points and 12 rebounds while Saeed averaged 12.5 points, 6.5 rebounds and 2.5 blocks during their elimination round games.
Qatar’s height of their guards is a big challenge for the Philippine national team. Jarvis Hayes and Khalid Adbi were listed at 6-foot-6, playing for the wing positions of Qatar. Starting guard Mansour Elhadary is just 5-foot-11 but he is backed up by 6-foot-4 combo guard Daoud Mosa Daoud.
Naturalized center Jarvis Hayes could cause plenty of problems for the Gilas Pilipinas defense. He consistently dominate Qatar’s offense. During Qatar’s game against Japan he rallied with 12 points in the fourth quarter and overcame Japan. Against Hong Kong he outscored the entire Hong Kong team in the first quarter with 18 points, even finishing the game with 25 points in just 24 minutes of play.
Qatar has their own share of outside shooters during their game against Hong Kong the team scored 15 three-pointers on a solid 38% from beyond the arc. Against Japan, the Qataris also hit 10 shots from the three-point area.
The only disadvantage of Qatar is their ability to guard quicker and better-shooting teams as confirmed by their coach Tom Wisman, the team found it hard to defend sweet-shooting Jordanian guard Wesam Al-Sous who scored most of his points from beyond the arc. The Philippines got the same firepower with the availability of Jeff Chan, Larry Fonacier and Ranidel de Ocampo.
