Egypt takes down misfiring Gilas to open King Abdullah Cup

The campaign of the Philippines at the 10th King Abdullah Cup went on the wrong foot Monday afternoon (evening, Manila time) after Egypt took them down 73-58 in the tournament opener at the Prince Hamzah Hall in Amman.

More than two weeks since their last game at the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Belgrade, Serbia, Coach Tab Baldwin’s Gilas were sent back to earth on a bad shooting display on his return to the Jordanian Capital at the warm-up competition that prepares them for the now-postponed FIBA Asia Cup.

In a slugfest where both teams never shot better than 39%, the Pharaohs took the middle quarters to pull away from a close first frame, in which they led by as much as 14 on an Ali Ahmad trey in the final period for their first win in the five-nation, six-team contest.

After a round-robin elimination round, the top four teams will move on to the knockout phase.

Coming off the bench, Amro Mohammad showed the way for the five-time AfroBasket and once EuroBasket champions, with the guard led all scorers with 14 points and adding five assists and four rebounds to his line.

Shooting just 23/64 (35%) from the field overall, Gilas were misfiring from both the rainbow country (14% on 4-27 shooting) and the 4.5-meter line (10/29 for 34%), a massive drop from their Serbian expedition where they hit more than 36% from the three-point area and only missed four free throws in the two games there.

The Ateneo big man combo of Ange Kouame and Isaac Go top-scored for the Filipinos with 13 points apiece, with the former adding 11 rebounds for a double-double.

San-En’s Thirdy Ravena returned for the national side and chipped in 8 points, but it was blighted with a horrid foul shooting, where he only went for 2/7.

The scores:

EGYPT 73 – Amro 14, Saeed 11, Kamal 9, Shosha 6, Hussin 6, Saleh 6, Shehata 6, Khlaf 6, Ahmad 3, Bakhet 2, Elmekawy 2, Abdelgawad 1, Abdellatif 1

PHILIPPINES 60 – Kouame 13, Go 13, Ramos 9, Ravena 8, Belangel 6, Baltazar 4, Heading 3, Ildefonso 3, Navarro 1, Matt Nieto 0, Chiu 0, Tamayo 0, Abarrientos 0

Quarter scores: 13-12, 33-24, 55-43, 73-60
FILE PHOTO: FIBA