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NATIONALS SUFFER ANOTHER LOSS

Talk ‘N Text shows chink in Gilas armor

By Arman Carandang

10/22/2009

Talk ‘N Text coach Chot Reyes, a former national team mentor, yesterday exposed the weaknesses of Smart-Gilas, the country’s future national squad, and Gilas coach Rajko Toroman realized it’s a long way to go if they are to have an even chance in international tournaments.

“The best way to help this team (Smart-Gilas) is to play hard,” uttered Reyes moments after his Tropang Texters trampled the national aspirants, 103-70, in what became a veritable basketball lesson at the Cuneta Astrodome.

Reyes and his Tropang Texters came prepared and played cautiously using their usual run and gun style.

“We put a little lot preparation for this game. We know that Gilas executes very well, so we had to do two critical things against them — have enough energy and execute well,” said Reyes.

The victory, fashioned before a good size Wednesday crowd, was the second straight for the Tropang Texters in the KFC-PBA Philippine Cup, where they are also the defending champions.

So awesome were the Tropang Texters, with five of them delivering double-digit outputs, that they broke the backs of Smart-Gilas as early as the second quarter where they built a 46-36 lead which snowballed as the game wore on.

By the end of the third period, TNT was already nursing a 76-54 lead which ballooned to as many as 94-67 with a little over three minutes left.

TNT did not even have to use a physical game like what Burger King did when it first played and beat Smart-Gilas a 115-105 last Friday.

“I told the boys to forget about physical game. We’re older and they’re (Smart-Gilas) younger. This is basketball. At the end of the day, you win the game by putting the ball on the hole, on the basket,” said Reyes.

Smart-Gilas absorbed its second straight loss in the tournament serving as its practice tournament.

Toroman, the Serbian coach handling the preparation of the national aspirants, used a 10-man rotation only, with CJ Giles playing only for five minutes. Ateneo’s Rabeh Al-Hussaini missed the game due to injury.

Ironically, it was the pair of small men — Mark Andy Barroca and JV Casio — which carried the fight for Smart-Gilas, hitting 16 and 14 points, respectively, although Japeth Aguilar managed to score 14 also on top of 14 rebounds.

“They (Smart-Gilas) need taller guards and swingman. It has big potential but it will have to plug its holes first. Al-Hussaini, Japeth and Ballesteros (Jason) will make a good rotation in the middle,” noted Reyes.

Mark Cardona led TNT with 16 points, Jimmy Alapag had 14, while Jared Dillinger and Jason Castro turned in 12 points each as the Tropang Texters, serving notice of their improved defense, posted a 2-0 start in the tournament they won last year over Alaska Milk.