Gilas eases past Talk 'N Text in MVP Cup

Gilas Pilipinas coach Tab Baldwin was the first to admit it.
“It felt like a scrimmage out there,” Baldwin said on Friday night, minutes after the Nationals ran roughshod over Talk ‘N Text, 93-77, to open up the MVP Cup Invitational at the Araneta Coliseum in Cubao.
“The intensity was missing, and it didn’t feel like an international basketball game for us,” Baldwin went on after his Nationals led by as many as 20 points after playing gingerly in the first half, especially on the defensive end.
Terrence Romeo scored 12 of his 22 points in the final quarter and engineered the Gilas breakaway as the Filipinos, as a consolation, got the workout they needed going into an interesting clash with the Wellington Saints of New Zealand.
The Saints also gathered all the momentum they need after ripping Chinese Taipei to shreds, 108-80, earlier in the day.
“Hopefully, tomorrow night, New Zealand will stiffen up. They want to win this tournament,” Baldwin said. “We should get a tough contest against them and hopefully, we’ll play better.”
“We need to improve the overall intensity,” he went on. “When we’re out there playing against guys we’re not friendly with, the intensity will surely pick up.”
Sharp-shooting Brook Ruscoe and the bull-strong Ray Turner each scored 25 points for the Kiwis, who got five players turning in twin digits as Wellington proved too much for the shorthanded Taiwanese.
Chinese Taipei, which placed third in the Jones Cup in Taiwan last week, played without veteran 7-foot center Tseng Wen-Ting and struggled to keep up with the taller and agile Kiwis.
Wellington won just three games in the Jones Cup and was an 84-86 loser to the Taiwanese there.
But the Kiwis started out hot and never looked back as they broke away completely near the end of the third period to take a 76-60 lead into the final frame.
Jameel Watkins, who played for USA Select-Overtake in the Jones Cup, was a late addition to the Wellington lineup. And the former import of defunct Shell Rimula in the PBA did a lot of damage underneath by shooting 14 points and grabbing 13 rebounds.
The Taiwanese couldn’t match up with the Kiwis’ overwhelming size advantage. With the 6-foot-11 Watkins leading the way, Wellington finished with a 56-30 edge in rebounding.
Kevin Braswell, the Wellington playing-coach, canned two straight triples inside the final 30 seconds of the third period and got the Saints scooting away. The 6-foot-2 points guard, semi-retired at 36 years old, issued a night-high 11 assists.
Bryan Davis scored 12 of his 18 points in the third period for Wellington before fouling out.
Chinese Taipei will clash with Talk ‘N Text at 3 p.m. on Saturday.
“With the size that they have, they sort of simulate the big Asian teams like China and Iran,” Baldwin said of Wellington. “It’s the kind of test we want to get out from this tournament.”
Andray Blatche scored 12 points and was still clearly out of game shape, though Baldwin was the first to ask the media “to not make a big story out of it.”
“He’ll come around, he has big league experience and he knows how to get it going,” Baldwin said. “Please don’t make a big story out of it.”