34th Jones Cup: Pilipinas' grades

Stay aggressive Gabe!

Today's 88-84 win over Japan marks yet another come-from-behind win for Team Pilipinas, pulling out all the stops to erase a 4th quarter 11-point deficit. Not only where the Japs shooting the ball with Korean-like precision, but their ball movement was the best this writer has seen from that country in years.

Fortunately for us, Marcus "Big Daddy" Douthit came through with a stellar 26 points, 13 rebounds performance to carry us throughout the game in time for the locals to regroup defensively and wax hot in the 4th. Our top gunners, Gary David and Jeffrei Chan, provided the needed long bombs with Gabe Norwood-- who is having a "Cyrus Baguio-like" series, just playing the best basketball we've seen from him so far.

We have to commend Coach Chot Reyes for his awesome shuffling and also that impressive switching on defense which just about everyone on the floor for Pilipinas appears to have embraced whole-heartedly. Not only were they being active, but screens and picks by the Japs were being taken out of the equation because there was always a guy rotating inside or outside to meet them.

So without further ado, let's move on to the grades so far: