For 25 minutes, Smart Gilas played like a team possessed as they outplayed and outhustled the taller and favored Lebanon squad, to build a commanding 15 point lead halfway through the third canto. But sad to say, basketball is a game played for 40 minutes. The Lebanese turned the tables in the final 15 minutes as they employed a stiffer zone defense and an array of three-pointers to win, 73-62, in the Jones Cup basketball championship in Taipeh. The loss dropped the Nationals to a 4th placed finish. Smart Gilas coach Rajko Toroman continues to be bothered by the ability of the team to close out games. With only four months to go before they represent the country in the Asian Games, Toroman will have to find solutions to this problem the soonest possible time.
"Their three-point shots killed us. We played a good game in the first three quarters, but in the end, we didn’t control the rebounds. We couldn’t manage the rebounds. We had lots of opportunities to execute.
“"We know that we are weak at positions four and five and we want to fix the problem.”
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