Nokia RP U-18 loses to hosts

SANA’A, Yemen--The Nokia RP U-18 team dropped its second straight game
anew as it bowed to host Yemen, 76-69, on Saturday in the 21st FIBA
Asia U18 Championship at the 22nd May Arena here.
Following a 75-83 setback to China, the Filipinos, backed by Nokia
Philippines and TAO Corporation, came out flat although they were only
down by six at the half at 33-39.
“We came out rather flat. We made a fight out of it, but we were
really flat,” said head coach Eric Altamirano, whose team is battling
Japan at 2 pm (Manila time) to improve on its quarterfinals chances.
Gelo Alolino scored 19 points while Gwyne Capacio had 16 for the
Philippines, which now totes a 1-2 record in the round. Sabri Sadakh
was the leader of the hosts’ cause with a game-high 21 points.
Qualifying teams in the second round carry over only preliminary wins
against fellow qualifiers from their same group. Only Philippines’
61-60 win over Syria was carried over to the second round as Saudi
Arabia (which the Philippines defeated, 86-68)) dropped to the
classification round while the Filipinos lost to China all in Group C
in the opening round.
Now in the second round Group F, the Philippines is lagging behind
China (3-0), Japan (3-0) and Yemen (2-1). But they are better off than
Iraq (0-3) and Syria (0-3) and are still in the running for a
quarterfinals seat. Top four teams in this round join top four teams
in the Group E in the knock-out quarterfinals.
The tournament dangles three tickets to the 2011 FIBA U19 World
Championship to be played in Latvia next year.(pr)