Ramos goes ballistic as Gilas blast Jordan-B

The Philippines get its much needed warm-up ahead of its final two games in the King Abdullah Cup when they put Jordan’s reserve squad to the gallows with a comprehensive 90-63 rout Wednesday afternoon (evening, Manila time) at Amman’s Prince Hamzah Sport Hall.

Despite the game not being counted towards the team standings in which they remain with a share at third with a 1-1 record, Tab Baldwin’s Gilas got a perfect tune-up to the final two games against Tunisia on July 29 and the main squad of the tournament hosts the day after, in which they shot lights out in the entire forty minutes of total domination.

Firing on all cylinders, Gilas rendered their 4/11 free throw shooting immaterial when they hit exactly half of their 70 field goal attempts and even routed the Jordanians in bench points (45-19), second chance scoring (21-4) and converting from turnovers (30-11).

Save for the scoreless stints of Will Navarro and Thirdy Ravena, every player put in by the legendary American mentor shot at least a field goal in a game that saw guard Dwight Ramos emerged from the shadows in the first two outings.

Heading into the contest averaging just 8 points in their two-game split against Egypt and Saudi Arabia, the incoming Ateneo Blue Eagle torched the nets in the Jordanian capital by scoring all of his 21 points in the first twenty minutes that all but settled the contest right away for the Filipinos.

What was more astounding being that after his first miss, Ramos hit seven consecutive three-pointers in what was his field goal production all game long, capping off his 58% clip with a spectacular index rating of 29 after adding 6 assists, 5 steals and 3 rebounds on his stat line.

Forward Justine Baltazar picked up where he left off after his immaculate game against the Saudis last Tuesday, ably backing up Ramos by firing in all but two of his shots for thirteen and Jordan Heading had eleven coming off the bench.

Ahmad Obeid had 14 for Jordan-B which lost its third consecutive game.

The game was practically done and dusted in the first half when Gilas led by a baker’s dozen, but they never put the foot off the gas pedal at the restart, with a 9-0 run gave them a 24-point cushion at 72-48 after Jordan came to within single digits early in the third.

Relentless as ever, the Filipinos continued their assault on the hapless hosts in the final frame in which Mike Nieto made a putback for the game’s biggest lead at 31, 90-59 with 2:37 remaining as Gilas has its eyes set on the homestretch of the five-nation tournament in the Middle East.

The scores:

PHILIPPINES 90 – Ramos 21, Baltazar 13, Heading 11, Tamayo 8, Suerte 8, Kouame 7, Abarrientos 6, Chiu 4, Ildefonso 3, Mike Nieto 3, Go 2, Belangel 2, Matt Nieto 2, Navarro 0, Ravena 0

JORDAN-B 63 – Obeid 14, Hamati 10, Ahmad 7, Abu Wazneh 7, Darwish 6, Abu Aboud 5, Hazaymeh 4, Khaled 3, Al Salah 3, Dajani 2, Abu Rashed 2, Barhoush 0, Ghneem 0

Quarter scores: 25-14, 46-33, 74-51, 90-63
FILE PHOTOS: JORDAN BASKETBALL FEDERATION