34th Jones Cup: Pusong Palaban

Ginto!

In a game that it had absolutely no business of winning after a tough 0-6 start and falling behind by double digits most of the way, the under-sized, little prepared and odd bunch known to us as the Pilipinas select team snatched the 34th William Jones Cup gold medal win right under the cocky U.S.A. stalwarts 76-75.

Not only were the Americans taking advantage of their superior combination of height, speed and athleticism that we only have Gabe Norwood to match with, but the guys added another facet to their attack-- knocking down jumpers and long bombs and just pretty much rising up over our shorter countrymen. In layman's terms, "ginawang asintahan ung mga puyo natin."

Marcus Douthit found it hard to spin around the opponents, who were either just as tall or faster than our naturalized center. Douthit, to his credit, over-extended himself in this one knowing that it's the Gold Medal game and appeared to be dying out on the court at times out of exhaustion. Still, the naturalized center gutted it out by scoring 17 points and playing exceptionally well on the defensive end to keep the Americans from simply driving into the lane.

The likes of Jeffrei Chan (17 points; who the Americans didn't seem to bother scouting prior to the game), Gabe Norwood (5 points on top of another solid effort-- even blocking the American's jumpers and lay-ups in the 1st half) and Coach Chot Reyes' invaluable hugot Larry Fonacier (9 points) carried us early and prevented the Americans from taking a disastrous 20 point lead.

But come 4th quarter, it was our starting point guard who this writer admittedly dismissed as being too short and too limited for the international game, who dominated and steered us all the way to the Gold (proving that he is the true heir to the Alapag throne). That one guy is no other than the 5"8 L.A. Tenorio who was put on lock by the American point guard "Justice" before finally stepping it up a notch come end game to end with 20 points.

Name it, and Tenorio did it. Knock down threes, make plays-- hell, he even had that one crucial rebound that helped the Pilipinas cause. For a while there we were all pretty worried about Tenorio engaging Justice in a shootout, turns out, while the American was busy trying to protect his "image" on the court and establish his physical superiority, Tenorio was busy trying to win the game for his team.

This writer will still stand to what was originally said about Tenorio, and how his best here in the Jones Cup won't do in the FIBA tournament (now that he's shown his A game, he'll be scouted big time). But for now, let's all give Tenorio, Pilipinas and Coach Chot Reyes and his motley crew the respect and love that they all deserve.

It's not everyday Pilipinas beats a USA team.

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas!