D-League champ NLEX trips Taiwanese NT

The NLEX Road Warriors staged a 15-8 run in the fourth quarter to upstage the visiting Chinese Taipei national men’s team, 102-95, in a friendly game last Saturday at the Ynares Gym in Pasig City. 

New recruit Matt Rosser scored six points, while Dave Marcelo and Eric Suguitan added four markers each for NLEX during that stretch to break away from an 87-all deadlock with still over five minutes left in the game.  Emman Monfort and Jones Cup-bound Garvo Lanete top-scored for the reigning PBA D-League champions with 16 points apiece.
 
The Taiwanese are here for a one-week training camp in preparation for the 34th William Jones Cup later this month in their home city of Taipei.  They beat the Road Warriors, 86-75, in their first meeting on Friday, and Ateneo’s Team B on Thursday.

“The Filipinos play physical and it’s a good training for us.  We want to toughen up our team, which is composed mostly of players from our young men’s national team,” said new Taiwan head coach Roger Hsu.  “We watched Game 6 of the PBA last night and saw a highly-physical game.  It’s something that we must learn as well to prepare us against the bigger teams in Asia.”

The Smart Gilas national team will also compete in this year’s Jones Cup on August 18-26, with a roster composed of Talk N Text’s Jason Castro, Larry Fonacier and Ranidel De Ocampo, Alaska’s LA Tenorio, Sonny Thoss and Mac Baracael, Rain Or Shine’s Gabe Norwood and Jeff Chan, Ginebra’s Enrico Villanueva, Meralco’s Sol Mercado and JayR Reyes, Powerade’s Gary David, NLEX’s Lanete, and naturalized import Marcus Douthit.  Last year, the Philippines defeated Chinese Taipei in the battle for third place in the Jones Cup, 82-72, with Douthit leading the charge with 28 points and 14 boards.

Also in last year’s Gilas line-up were Chris Tiu, JV Casio, Japeth Aguilar, Mark Barroca, Baracael, Jason Ballesteros, Dylan Ababou, Chris Lutz, Marcio Lassiter, Don-don Hontiveros and Asi Taulava.
From last year’s Chinese-Taipei roster in the Jones Cup, only Hsueh-Lin Lee, Chia-En Mao, Chia-Hung Chien, Hsin-An Chen and Creighton Douglas remained.