Gilas 5 opens Jones Cup bid with rout of Taipei

Big man Japeth Aguilar opened with back-to-back dunks, setting the tone of Smart-Gilas Pilipinas' 83-52 rout of the Chinese-Taipei University All-Star in the 32nd William Jones Cup Wednesday at the Hsinchuang gymnasium in Hsinchuang City Taiwan. Aguilar started with an alley-hoop jam then followed it up with a fastbreak throwdown as the RP team hopefuls warmed up before its much-awaited meeting with defending and reigning FIBA-Asia men's basketball titlist Iran. Six-foot-10 import Marcus Douthit, the RP team hopefuls' candidate for naturalization, scored 15 points and grabbed 14 rebounds to lead the Gilas 5's offensive onslaught. Filipino-American guard Marcio Lassiter added 11 markers while Aguilar had 10, all of which on power dunks.

Gilas opened with a 20-8 lead after one quarter then stretched it further to a 40-23 advantage at halftime. Lassiter's three-point play with 4:11 left in the game, gave the Rajko Toroman-coached Gilas squad a 78-44 spread. Po Chen Chou finished with 14 points to pace the Chinese-Taipei University-led All-Stars. "It's a nice win especially at the beginning of the tournament. We played against a young team," said Toroman. “We have problems with the court and the ball, but we have to be satisfied with this win and look forward against Iran (Thursday)." The Iranians arrived here Wednesday and will face their former coach Toroman and his Gilas crew at 3 p.m. Thursday. Iran is playing minus superstar center Hamed Haddadi, who is currently seeing action for the Memphis Grizzlies in the NBA Summer League, but remains one of the favorites together with fellow Asian power Lebanon. – JVP, GMANews.TV