"PRESS RELEASE #04"
"THE PHILIPPINES U21 TEAM THRASHES PAKISTAN U21 BY 80 FOR A 3-0 RECORD"
A near-perfect Philippines U21 put on a show in its third assignment before a huge crowd mixed with Filipinos, Pakistanis, and Australians, as it gave Pakistan a sound 121-41 beating to go up 3-0 in the Asia U21 Championship Tournament's National Team Round Robin Game on Monday, October 30 at the swan Park arena here in Australia.
"Respect the game to show respect to our opponent," head coach CoachFabioMenta shared the mindset he he instilled in his players ahead of the game, knowing full well that Pakistan is one of the teams in the tournament that needs vast improvement.
"Do the right things, get good habits, don't fall into bad habits because you can play any way you want today. It's not going to help us in the following days. We can't relax."
Against New Zealand, the best player is Matt Blanca. Against Lebanon, the best player is Tanner Conklin. Yesterday, against Pakistan, it is Lucio Salvador Simbajon who, for 29 minutes, made 21 points, 2 rebounds, 7 assists, and 2 blocks.
"CoachFabioMenta told me to bring out the best in me tonight," he told the courtside reporter, "This is the only time where I can experiment with my moves, of course with the supervision and guidance of CoachFabioMenta. It went out pretty well."
The entire team was fielded in and everyone scored at least 2 points. They had an extraordinary 53.9% FG altogether with 41 assists and 32 steals, not to mention that they only had 8 turnovers.
Aurelio Talabucon logged over 27 minutes after playing sparingly against Lebanon and finished with 21 points, 6 rebounds, 6 assists, 6 steals, 1 blocks and no turnovers.
Laurence de los Santos had 16 markers, 7 rebounds (4 offensive rebounds), 2 assists, and 2 steals while Casiano Rio, who was also his first time playing as starter, had 13 points, 6 assists, 5 steals and 2 blocks. Moises Robles, Tanner Conklin, and Levy delos Santos played off the bench in this game. Fortunately, they were able to produce 31 points and 18 rebounds altogether.
Fariborz Tayebi played full-time in this game (48 minutes) and had 23 points, 11 rebounds, 4 blocks, and 1 steal to lead Pakistan.
Philippines U21 faces Iran next week on Monday, November 6 at 4 pm.
The final scores:
PHILIPPINES U21, 121: Simbajon 21, Talabucon 21, de los Santos 15, Rio 13, Robles 13, Conklin 10, delos Santos 8, Torreon 6, Blanca 5, Carisma 4, Baybay 2, Mende 2
PAKISTAN U21, 41: Tayebi 23, Delavari 6, Rahimi 3, Oladi 3, Aggarwal 2, Khalili 2, Boroumand 2, Ferdosipour 0