IRAN reasserted its supremacy over the Philippine by pulling off a dominating 74-65 victory on Thursday in the 37th William R. Jones Cup invitational tournament at the Xinzhuang Gymnasium in Taiwan.
Seven-foot-two center Hamed Haddadi remained the biggest thorn Gilas Pilipinas couldn’t neutralize as he scored 22 points, grabbed 14 rebounds and blocked two shots to lead Iran to its fifth win in six outings for the lead in the eight-nation tournament.
With their second loss in five games, regaining the crown, the Philippines won in 2012 looked bleak.
Gilas, however, did not hand the victory to Iran on a silver platter. The Filipinos were very much in the game when JC Intal buried a three-pointer to slice Iran’s lead to 61-65 with 3:43 remaining.
But Haddadi, who did not play in Iran’s 66-81 loss to USA Select Team on Tuesday, set up Hamed Afagh for a corner trey and scored on a left-handed slam to spark a 9-4 windup by the reigning International Basketball Federation Asia champions.
Forty-two-year-old Asi Taulava held his own against the 30-year-old Haddadi with 12 points and seven rebounds, while Intal and Jayson Castro added 10 apiece for the team of Head Coach Tab Baldwin.
Terrence Romeo, the tournament’s third-leading scorer with more than 17 points per game, was held to his lowest output in five games in the tournament with only eight points.
The GlobalPort guard injured his left foot at the end of the third quarter. He returned at the 2:42 mark of the final quarter but failed to score again.
Iran dominated the boards, 43-32, resulting to a 40-18 advantage in points in the paint.
Gilas will face Wellington Saints of New Zealand on Friday at 1 p.m., the USA Select Pro squad on Saturday at 5 p.m. and Chinese Taipei’s training pool at the end of the tournament on Sunday at 1 p.m.
Naturalized player Andray Blatche is expected to play against Taiwan. He is still in the US attending the funeral services for his uncle Steve.
Image credits: Kevin de la Cruz