NHA TRANG CITY, Vietnam
Park
Intae made his appearance only at the start of the second quarter
adding size to an already solid defense to lead Korea to a 67-58 win
against stubborn, but rigid, Philippines in the second semifinal on
Thursday.
The
result took Korea to their second successive final in the event’s
history, also booking a ticket to Lithuania for the 2012 FIBA U17 World
Championship.
It
was the Philippines indeed who called the shots and rolled the dice for
a better part of the first quarter. Korea were, for sure, locked close
it was Olsen Racela’s boys who looked fancied.
But all that fancy lasted only till the start of the second quarter when Korea coach Kim Dongsoo inducted Park Intae (pic above) their tallest player.
“It
was a part of the plan to keep him back. We knew they will set a very
fast pace. We didn’t want to tire him out,” Kim said about holding the
203-cm center back.
Philippines were denied the free run they had enjoyed till then and began to run into the Park wall, and out of ideas.
Heo
Hoon enhanced his reputation as one of the craftiest players in the
competition drawing some smart fouls – the one he drew on Jan Cani with
one second left on the shot clock being a glorious exhibition of Heo’s
game sense – and converted the resultant free-throws.
Kim
Nakhyeon, who drew a blank in the first quarter, came into his own and
used Heo’s set-plays, to add strength to the Korean cause.
Heo and Kim Nakhyeon each scored 8 points in the second quarter – out of a 22 and 16 points for the game respectively.
Philippines,
undoubtedly, were enthusiastic and entertaining for the remainder of
the game, but with very little variety in their repertoire the Filipinos
a little too predictable to cause any major dent to the Korean cause.
Some wayward shooting with the attempts bouncing off the rim more of than not didn’t help the Philippines.
Henry
Asilum and Rodolfo Alejandro each with a dozen points, the latter 8 of
them in the first quarter, led Philippines’ scoring.
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