While it may be unimaginable to topple Australia in Asian basketball competition, it has been done once before by the Philippines -- and on the world stage for that matter. This may help Gilas to draw inspiration that anything is possible, even upsetting one of the best basketball nations in the world.
Australia has a stellar record since entering the hoops realm (rather by default) when Melbourne hosted the 1956 Olympiad and fielded a basketball team for the first time ever. The Aussies failed to win a single assignment in the group stages as they fell to Chile and perennial contenders Brazil by double digits.
In the classification stages, they were able to pull off victories against budding programs Singapore and Thailand but still lost to Formosa (now known as Chinese-Taipei) to salvage twelfth place. In that same staging of the games, the Philippines finished in seventh -- its second highest Olympic finish since a fifth place showing two decades prior in the 1936 Berlin edition.
They would make their next Olympic appearance in Tokyo in 1964 and eventually qualify for its first FIBA World Cup (then known as the FIBA World Championship) in 1970 and have steadily become one of the best in the world (currently ranked tenth by FIBA).
During the period Australia was gaining ground in the sport, the Philippines was already heading towards a decline after dominating Asia in the 1960s and sputtering out in the mid-1970s as the birth of the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) was imminent.
But in the 1974 FIBA World Championship, these two countries crossed paths in what may have been (at the time) a mere classification match, but went down to have an entire generation look back in wonder how it went down.
By virtue of its sweep (10-0) in the 1973 FIBA Asia Championship-then known as the Asian Basketball Confederation (ABC) Championship in Manila -- the Philippines was the lone representative from the continent when the tournament was held the following year in Puerto Rico.
The Philippines had the misfortune of having been drawn into what is considered that meet's "Group of Death" as that Group B featured powerhouses Brazil (the previous staging's silver medalists), Argentina (the inaugural titlists) and the United States, the most dominant basketball nation ever.
The Philippine team had a solid line-up:
- 4 Jimmy MARIANO:C 6-4 University of the East
- 5 Joy CLEOFAS:F 6-2 Ateneo de Manila University
- 6 Tembong MELENCIO:F 6-2 University of the East
- 7 Robert JAWORSKI:G 6-1 University of the East
- 8 Francis ARNAIZ:G 5-11 Ateneo de Manila University
- 9 Abet GUIDABEN:C 6-5 University of San Jose-Recoletos
- 10 Ramon FERNANDEZ:C 6-4 University of San Carlos
- 11 Bogs ADORNADO:F 6-1 University of Santo Tomas
- 12 Yoyong MARTIREZ:G 5-8 Southwestern University
- 13 Manny PANER:F 6-2 University of the Visayas
- 14 Big Boy REYNOSO:F 6-2 San Beda College
- 15 Dave REGULLANO:F 6-2 Collegio de San Juan de Letran
In Group C, the Boomers suffered a similar fate by dropping all of its contests against Cuba, Canada and Czechoslovakia to get relegated to the classification round.
On 8 July 1974, the Philippines and Australia clashed to determine which team will get the best ranking in the tournament and with four other countries in the mix, the nation that scored the most wins gets the better placing. The venue was at the Coliseo Hector Sola Bezares in Caguas.
Australia had perhaps the best scorer in the tournament with 6-foot-2 Eddie Palubinskas averaging 24.6 PPG and feasted on fouls with his gung-ho drives and impeccable free throw shooting.
Palubinskas, who was born in the land down under to a Lithuanian father and a Russian mother, went on to become Australia's first basketball great and even later on set a Guinness World Record for making free throws while blindfolded. Coming into the tourney, he had averaged 21.1 PPG in the 1972 Munich Olympics; helping the Aussies in attaining a ninth place finish.
Against the Philippines, Palubinskas scored his tournament-high 39 markers and after a 50-50 score at halftime, he proceeded to create more problems against the smaller Filipinos.
The Pinoys countered with a team effort, however, with Adornado pouring in a team-high twenty points from the perimeter aided by inside incursions by Fernandez and Paner who each had sixteen points apiece before Reynoso chipped in ten points of his own. Mariano engaged the Australian bigs in a battle at the post as well. It was a fight-fire-with-fire approach by Eduque and in the end the Philippines came away with a slim 101-100 triumph.
It was the only time in their history that the Aussies lost to the Philippines.
No comments:
Post a Comment