Lanky Japeth Aguilar finally showed glimpses of his true potential with a dominating double-double in the fifth and final game of the Smart Gilas national team’s tour of Australia in which the Filipinos beat the Sydney Comets Senior men’s team 93-81 at the Alexandria Stadium Sunday afternoon.It was the fourth victory in five games against competitive Australian teams with the rematch against the Australian Institute of Sports ending in a 73-73 tie with both coaches agreeing not to go into an extra five minutes since it was only a practice game.
Aguilar and coach Rajko Toroman’s youngsters left the best for last clearly benefiting from the tour and playing their best game against the toughest team they faced.
Smart Gilas trailed at the end of the third quarter 64-66 but played what Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas vice chairman and former PBA chairman Ricky Vargas described as a “fantastic last period” to win, with Aguilar finishingg with 29 points and 10 rebounds while Marcio Lassiter finished with 17, Mark Barroca 14, skipper Chris Tiu 13, Greg Slaughter who has also shown vast improvement on the tour adding 7 , Mac Baracael 6, Jason Ballesteros 5 and RJ Jazul 2.
Earlier, Smart Gilas whopped the New South Wales Institute of Aports 82-83 after beating the Canberra Gunners 101-84, the Australian Institute of Sports men’s team 79-73 and Australia’s Under 19 squad that played in the world championships 78-76.
The nationals benefiting from the well-thought- out development program of the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas headed by the eminent businessman-sportsman Manny Pangilinan will fly to Serbia for a series of games against big and tall European teams as part of their preparation for the 2011 FIBA Asia Championships which is the qualifying tournament for the 2012 London Olympics.
Source: insidesports.ph
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